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German- identifying the dative | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| yantai_scot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4803 days ago 157 posts - 214 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 7 12 March 2014 at 2:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm working through Hugo German in 3 Months and came across this sentence in an
exercise on using der, die and das to stand for an idea: Unsere Tochter heiratet nächste Woche. I'm to fill in the blank so my answer was: Die wünsche ich viel Spaß. However, the correct answer is: Der wünsche ich viel Spaß. I understand the idea that this means that the 'die' standing in for 'sie' is in the Dative rather than the Accusative. But why? I'm wishing her good luck, so isn't 'her/she' the direct object? Please unbefuddle me... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 2 of 7 12 March 2014 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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No, "Spaß" is the direct object, so the person you wish a good time (not good luck!) is the indirect object:
jemandem (Dat.) etwas (Akk.) wünschen Edited by Josquin on 12 March 2014 at 2:05pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4083 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 3 of 7 12 March 2014 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are some verbs which usually go Dativ.
Wünschen is one of them, helfen is another. Perhaps someone can post a link to a list of common verbs that go Dativ. AFAIR there arent that many. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 4 of 7 12 March 2014 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | ||
BTW, this example sounds rather stilted. Most Germans would most likely say: Ich wünsche ihr viel Spaß. I guess you wouldn't have problems identifying the object in this sentence. :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5229 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 5 of 7 12 March 2014 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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http://german.about.com/library/verbs/blverb_dativ.htm
http://german.about.com/library/verbs/blverb_dativ2.htm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5229 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 6 of 7 12 March 2014 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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By the way, this mismatch between verbs is a common sticking point in many languages. It's nearly always an instance like this one, where the verb in one language takes the accusative where the other language takes the dative (but sometimes other cases are involved). I've seen it in Spanish, Latin, Russian, German, and I'd bet it happens every time you translate from one language with noun cases to another. Friends of mine who speak English as a second language perfectly fluently still mess it up routinely.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| yantai_scot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4803 days ago 157 posts - 214 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 7 of 7 13 March 2014 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you all very much. I really appreciate your explanations, the verb lists and the
heads up that it's something I'm going to meet time and again. As for the example- it's good to know the more natural version. I'm off to look it all up as per your advice :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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