sentence structure of pronouns

I am concentrating on verbs 'im moment' and was wondering where does the second pronoun go in a sentence, for example *I will forgive him*, is it *'ich er werde vergeben'* or *'ich werde vergeben er'* Also is the sentence structure the same if a pronoun is replaced by a proper noun *I will forgive the teacher * is it *'ich werde vergeben Der Lehrer'* Danke Ken.

Hi Ken, in German the word order is much more flexible than it is in English. Because German uses different cases, you can easily change the word order for emphasis. More often than not the word order is the same as in English. For example: "Ich liebe Dich" - "I love you" "Er redet schnell" - "He talks fast" The basic word order is subject+verb+other word forms. In a statement the verb always comes second, as in the examples above. However that doesn't mean that the verb is the second word in a phrase, as there are "units" that belong together, for example: "Der kleine Hund bellt viel" - "The little dog barks a lot" In this case "the little dog" is a unit which belongs together and this unit is followed by the verb. This rule applies to most sentences (not questions though). There are some exception, however in spoken German these exceptions are usually ignored. Then there is also the so called "Time-Manner-Place-Rule" in case there are several adverbs in a sentence, for example: "Er fährt jeden Tag (Time) mit dem Auto (Manner) ins Büro (Place)" - "Everyday he drives to work with his car." Let's have a look at your examples: I will forgive him- "Ich werde ihm vergeben" "Him" is Dative and therefore we use "ihm". I will forgive the teacher - "Ich werde dem Lehrer vergeben" Again, "the teacher" is Dative and therefore we use "dem Lehrer". (Please refer to the grammar guide for more information on the Dative especially Lesson 6.1-6.4). Remember the verb is in the second position, even if you change the word order to put the emphasis on the teacher: "Dem Lehrer werde ich vergeben" (which translates more like: The teacher is the one whom I will forgive) The article "dem" and "Lehrer" are a unit and belong together, therefore the verb is the third word in the phrase, but it is still the second position in the phrase.