Dativ

I am totally confused - Ich brauche Hilfe! I think I understand and can find the DATIV in the following sentence: Paul (subject) gibt (action) der Frau (dativ or in english the indirect object) das Ticket (acccusitiv or direct object in english) I do not understand : Der Frau (DATIV) gefällt das Hotel. Why is it ''Der Frau"? I applied: What does the woman like? My answer: the hotel. Is the hotel the subject? I do understand (at least I think I do): Mira (subject) gefällt (action) der Film(indirect object/DATIV) I understand the concept in: Die Frau (subject) gibt (action) dem Mann (indirect object/DATIV) einen Kuss (direct object/Acc) This concept is driving me MAD! Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I am still confused but did read under the subject matter: lesson 6.7 what Mitschuler said earlier (2/23/11) about applying all meanings and possibilities of German words. With that in mind I amend that I unstood Mira gefällt der Film. It is the same scenerio as Der Frau gefällt das Hotel. One would say in English: The hotel pleases the woman Why not say in German:? Das Hotel gefällt der Frau.

"Why not say in German Das Hotel gefällt der Frau." Hm...I've actually always said it that way as well (Das Hotel gefällt mir). :P I think, however, it's more of emphasis on the specific noun when one says "Der Frau gefällt das Hotel". Instead of making it the -hotel- that pleases the woman, you're shifting emphasis that the hotel is pleasing the -woman-. Another example is to think of "Den Hund liebt der Junge." The boy loves the dog, but "the dog" is at the beginning of the sentence. Why? Because the speaker wants you to know that it is specifically -the dog- that the boy loves. :) Same with "Mir gefällt das Hotel"-I want them to know that it the hotel is pleasing to -me-. So in conclusion, "Das Hotel gefällt der Frau" and "Der Frau gefällt das Hotel" are pretty much the same thing, it's just which word you wish to place emphasis on. Anyway, this is just my thinking when it comes to this-if anyone else has another opinion, feel free to share it as well! :)

Adding a cross reference to the other forum post: http://members.rocketlanguages.com/your-community/german-grammar/examples-in-6-7/ Helpful for me since I added links there for the lessons with this problem. -Jason

It's kind of like an active versus passive voice thing which in English we handle by changing the order of the subject and object, e.g. " the dog bit the man", versus the "man was bitten by the dog", However, that is not necessary in German because the case of the article makes it clear which is which. However, it is definitely confusing to beginners whose native language is English because we always expect the subject to be first in the sentence. That's why it is so important to learn those annoying cases. "Der Hund" versus "den Hund" makes a big difference in the correct translation given in the example above.