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Raisa
Bitte hilfe! Mir vs mich, dir vs dich
Hi! I have a question regarding akkusativ and dativ of personal pronomen in German:
Ich liebe dich (after verb then the 2nd person is in akkusativ form, I get that).
But why is:
Ich helfe dir, using "dir" not "dich"?
And which is correct: Können sie mir/mich bitte korrigieren (please correct me)?
Vielen Dank!
Feb 7, 2015 2:56 AM
Answers · 7
1
You need to learn the verb patterns. Often they make sense, sometimes you just have to learn them. The patterns are:
jemanden/etwas (Akk) lieben
jemanden/etwas (Akk) korrigieren
But:
jemandem (Dat) bei/mit/in etwas (Dat) helfen
The rationale is that the dative describes the person who suffers or profits from something, or for whose sake something is done. But that alone is often not enough to guess the correct case.
A good dictionary (e.g. Pons) will list the patterns together with their meanings:
http://de.pons.com/%C3%BCbersetzung?q=helfen&l=deen&in=&lf=
http://de.pons.com/%C3%BCbersetzung?q=korrigieren&l=deen&in=&lf=
(In the same way, you should always learn nouns together with the article: "der Tisch" instead of just "Tisch").
February 7, 2015
Many verbs request accusative, as lieben and korrigieren, others dative, as helfen. So correct ist: Können Sie mich bitte korrigieren?
The problem is how to know which one needs accusative and which one dative. Basically, there is no rule, one must know. The questions might help:
Wen oder was liebst du/lieben Sie? accusative
Wem hilfst du/helfen Sie? dative
February 7, 2015
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Raisa
Language Skills
English, German, Indonesian, Spanish
Learning Language
German, Spanish
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