Dative

Have come across that glauben, antworten and gehoeren always take dative.

Is this correct and are there any other verbs that only take dative?

Are there verbs that just take Accusative or genitive?

Danke

Maxie

Hi Maxie

THere are lots of verbs that take the dative, I think the best thing is to learn them when you encounter them. I certainly haven't tried to learn a list of of them.

I found a website that gives some common and less common dative verbs. They also add a few genitive verbs. (I didn't know any of those.) But it also says that the use of genitive with these verbs is confind to very formal written German.

https://www.thoughtco.com/frequently-used-german-dative-verbs-4071410

This is probably too much information :-)

Simon

Hi Maxie, 

Danken and helfen are two really basic verbs in dative that always catch me out.  

Ich danke dir vielmals.  Du hast mir wirklich geholfen.  

In both of these cases, in English ‘you’ and ‘me’ seem like direct objects, so it sounds funny to hear ‘mir’ and ‘dir’ instead of ‘mich’ and ‘dich’.  

But that's just how it is 

On the other hand, another really basic verb uses accusative for what seems like the same kind of thing: 

Hast du mich verstanden? 

If you wanted to get really crazy, there's a book, Express Lingo's “Deutsch Lernen - Verben, Adjektive und Nomen mit Präpositionen: Learn German Verbs, Adjectives and Nouns with Prepositions” with around 100 of each and their preposition and case designations.  

I dip into this book periodically and often come away with one or two more that I remember, but I never seem to be able to fully absorb more than a few at a time. One of my long-long-term projects.   

Hope you're well.

Doug

Hi Doug

Thanks for that , will try and source it. Am using Seedlang for revision and my German vocabulary has grown in leaps and bounds. As for the grammar that is still hit and miss at times, not to worried about that though, as long as I can make myself undersood and understand. Will not ever need get into a translating job. 

Coming back to a previous post on Portugal. My one brother in law is not Portuguese  and he was trying to get into converstions, but everyone wanted to use their English, He found this frustrating, as he really wants to learn POrtuguese. He eventually enrolled into a language school to learn. So many people speak English. My daugher and her partner were there, speak no Portuguese and had a great time.

Have you heard of Bacalhau. Salted cod and the national dish. That may take getting used to, as has a strong smell. Any supermarket you walk into, you will smell it a mile off. My kids hate it, but I do cook it, as Philip likes it.  Keep me posted about your potential move

Sharon

Hallo zusammen!

Yes, glauben, antworten and gehören always take dative. There are quite a few other dative verbs such as vertrauen (to trust), folgen (to follow) and helfen (to help).

Accusative verbs include hören (to hear), öffnen (to open), and besuchen (to visit) and more. There are also a few genetive verbs but these are not used very often and typically replaced with other cases by using other verbs and or prepositions. Like Simon said, it's best to learn these verbs when come across them in your practice and you can build up your vocabulary from there :)

Happy learning!

Julia

Thank you Julia

Will need to put these in my notes to remember

Sharon

Hi Sharon, 

I think what i was really saying is that knowing a verb's case or a verb's preposition + case is a big thing, something that covers a lot of territory and takes a long time to master. 

And it's something that separates native speakers (who get it right all the time) and non-native speakers (who take a long time to get any of it right). 

Fortunately, we can be understood perfectly well while still blundering through these combinations. 

I've never experienced Bacalhau, but know of it. They have it in Brazil as well, and write songs about it. 

It can be very frustrating to be answered in English when you're trying to communicate in the local language. The only strategy for that is to keep speaking the local while they speak English. Can be an odd exchange, but I've seen it happen, and sometimes they relent and start speaking their own language after all. 

Doug

HI Doug

Well I'm not surprised that Bacalhau has songs about it. It features highly in Portugal too, but not songs or any I know, but wouldn't surprise me. I know they is a recipre for everyday of the year. Here in Canada they have the same thing in New Foundland. From Norwegian and Portuguese fishermen I believe. 

One thing I do know is that Patries and breads are good in Portugal. I would happily live in Portugal as Philip has siblings, and cousins there. I have a cousin and her family there too. 

Let me know how you go

Maxie