GCSE German - Dative Case help

Hi

I'm revising for my German GCSE and am looking at cases on s-cool. I understand the accusative, nominative and genetive but i just cannot get the dative. It says:

d) Dative case:

Dative for indirect object.

Verbs for saying, showing, giving, etc. often have an indirect object. For instance, the person or thing to whom something is said, shown, given, etc.

For Example: Ich gebe dem Baby das Spielzeug. (I’m giving the baby the toy).

The subject of the verb ‘gebe’ is ‘ich’. The object of the verb ‘gebe’ is ‘das Spielzeug’ - this is what is being given and so it is in the accusative case. We are also told to whom the toy is given (dem Baby) and this is the indirect object. The indirect object is in the dative case.

If a sentence contains both a direct and an indirect object in the form of a noun, then the indirect object (the dative) always comes first.
Can anyone shead any light on it please?

Thanks

:tsr2:

Reply 1

Fleece

What exactly do you need light shedding on? It's explained there?

With the indirect object, you just need to be able to ask the question "to who/to what"...

There are also certain verbs which take the dative..

Reply 2

generalebriety

The only thing I can see that might be confusing you is the apparent two objects in "I'm giving the baby the toy". The reason "Baby" is dative is because if you said "ich gebe das Baby..." you would be putting it in the accusative, meaning you are giving the baby (i.e. away, or to someone else). It's in the dative because the sentence means "I am giving the toy to the baby" - note that the word "dative" itself comes from the Latin word for "to give", and is used very often in "giving" situations, or just generally when the word "to" is used in English but isn't expressed by "zu" or something.

Reply 3

mikeman150

sorry if i wasnt clear. Im having trouble with "indirect object" Im not to good with this type of thing usually.

Sorry lol

Reply 4

generalebriety

mikeman150

sorry if i wasnt clear. Im having trouble with "indirect object" Im not to good with this type of thing usually.

Sorry lol

An indirect object is an object that's not directly (you see? :p:

) affected by the verb. So, "I gave the baby the toy" - "the baby" is not the thing under the action of the verb, i.e. it's not being given. And it's certainly not the subject.

Reply 5

Fleece

Thinking from the point of view of the subject of the sentence, ask yourself the question "Wen oder was?" / "who or what" to work out the direct object, and "Wem oder was?"/ "to who or what" to work out the indirect object.

So.

Ich gebe dem Baby das Spielzeug

Was gebe ich?/What am I giving? - Das Spielzeug

Wem gebe ich das Spielzeug?/To who am I giving? - dem(das) Baby

Dunno if that clears anything up, prob just confused you lol!

Reply 6

mikeman150

No. No confusion it actually really helped lol. I think i've got it now. So if there was a sentence:

"I read the book to the boy."

Direct object - The book

Indirect object - The boy

Is this right???

Thanks agen!

Reply 7

Vegemite

mikeman150

Yah hah! That's right!

Just remember: subject is who or what provides the action, direct object is who or what the action is being done to, and indirect object is an object that is neither of these...

GCSE German - Dative Case help

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