dative

Hi All

Once again my brain is saying why.

Ich ​war mit einer Freundin ​im ​Kino. I know that “in takes accusative or dative if there is movement.  I am puzzled by the ”im"  I can see it is dative, that I understand. But is there no movement in this case. As surely he went to the movies. Just puzzled

Maxie

That's an interesting question, Is a misake or deliberate?

Could it be that the English translation is a bit confusing because “went” inplies movement, but the German was “war” - I was in the cinema. So pehaps no movement?

Simon

HI Simon

Every language has its oddities. I can ask my German friend too. She explains everything so well and I always appreciate her input. I was doing revision and as I have progressed am noticing more and more, which quite thrills me

Take care

Sharon

How about “ Ich ging mit einer Freundin Ins Kino”

I think “ins” is correct here because “ging” implies movement.

Its all a bit of a puzzle isn't it.

I never noticed this as an issue before.

Simon

Hi Maxie and Simon, 

“Ich war mit einer Freundin im Kino.”, literally “I was with a friend in the movie theater.”, implies that there is no movement here which is why we need to use the dative case. You can ask the question “Wo war ich?” - “Where was I?” → “im Kino." - “in the movie theater”. 

If we look at Simon's suggestion “Ich ging mit einer Freundin Ins Kino.” - “I went to the movies with a friend.”, this shows that there is movement to the movie theater which is why we need the accusative case. You can ask: “Wohin ging ich?” - "Where did I go (to)?" → “ins Kino” - “to the movie theater”. 

This is understandibly a bit confusing as in English it's more natural to say that you went to the movies which implies movement. When you struggle to identify the right case, have a close look at the German words used and check out the literal translation, then try turn the sentence into a question with “wo” - “where” or “wohin” - “where (to)”. 

Hope this helps to clear things up a bit :)

Viele Grüße,

Julia

Thanks Julia, do you think it would be useful to add a literal button here to clarify the issue?

No worries! There should be one there already :)