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German: Ich vs. Mir | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| arkady Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States rightconditi Joined 5399 days ago 54 posts - 61 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian* Studies: German | Message 1 of 5 15 February 2010 at 8:26am | IP Logged |
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Question to all of you German speakers.
What is the rule for when to use I (Ich) versus Me (Mir). Why is it that I can say: Mir geht es gut. but not... Ich gehte es gut. The second one being: I am going well as opposed to the former, being Me is going well? There are probably a few other examples, but in general I have no idea when to use Mir instead of Ich. Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jae Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5663 days ago 206 posts - 239 votes Speaks: English*, German, Latin Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, French | Message 2 of 5 15 February 2010 at 10:29am | IP Logged |
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Basically, there are three words for I/me, and they are in different cases:
Nominative (Subject): ich Accusative (Direct Object): mich Dative (Indirect Object): mir There are many different ways to use these forms, though nominative is the easiest as it is always the subject. Accusative is always the direct object: Sie schlaegt mich. - She hits me. (I am receiving the action; I am the object.) Then dative: Sie gibt mir den Ball. - She gives me the ball. (or "She gives the ball to me.") There are also other ways to use the dative. "Mir geht es gut" is basically translated as I am doing well. But what it literally means is: "It goes well for me." Thus, the "for me" (because "mir" can be translated as to/for me) is the "mir." Hope that cleared it up. Feel free to send a PM if you have more questions :) Good luck with German! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5434 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 3 of 5 15 February 2010 at 1:37pm | IP Logged |
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The crucial thing is to figure out what is subject and what is (direct or indirect) object in a sentence. This is like in Russian:
Мне нравится море. The Russian "мне" corresponds to the German "mir": both are dative case pronouns of "я" or "ich". You would actually build the sentence in German in exactly the same way. "I" am the indirect object, and "the sea" is the subject: Mir gefällt das Meer. A different word order works as well, with the exception that the pronoun comes before the verb in Russian but after the verb in German: Море мне нравится. Das Meer gefällt mir. This analogy doesn't reach very far, though. The cases required in Russian and German are quite different in many situations, but the basic idea is the same. Edited by OlafP on 15 February 2010 at 1:40pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Astrophel Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5731 days ago 157 posts - 345 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Cantonese, Polish, Sanskrit, Cherokee | Message 4 of 5 15 February 2010 at 3:19pm | IP Logged |
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The use of "mir" that's confusing you is marking a subjective experience. It will probably help to keep in mind the literal translation of "mir" as to/for me.
Mir ist kalt = I am cold = (To me) it is cold. Mir gefällt das Meer = I like the sea = (For me) the sea pleases. Jae explained your problem sentence perfectly above..."Mir geht es gut" is "It goes well for me"! The rule is that when describing subjective experiences like feelings, temperature, etc., use mir, because the statement is true only for YOU. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| arkady Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States rightconditi Joined 5399 days ago 54 posts - 61 votes Speaks: English*, Russian* Studies: German | Message 5 of 5 15 February 2010 at 3:25pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you guys, that does help. I think correlating it to English was a mistake, but when I think about it from a Russian perspective it clicks.
For instance Mir ist kalt, does not translate well to English, but in Russian it becomes: Mne holodno. Much more reasonable. I guess the difficulty is thinking about it naturally, I am still stuck in translating mode. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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