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8.4 Other uses of the dative case
many verbs of speaking, with the accusative object often consisting of a dass-CLAUSE or an
INFINITIVECLAUSE (see 10.3 and 10.6):
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antworten Er antwortete (mir), dass er es weiß. He replied (to me) that he knows it. erzählen Ich erzählte (den Kindern) ein Märchen. I told the children a fairy-tale. raten Wir raten Ihnen, nicht zu warten. We advise you not to wait. sagen Ralf hat (mir) gesagt, dass er kommt. Ralf told me that he’s coming. versichern Sie versicherte ihm, dass sie nicht friert. She assured him that she wasn’t cold. verzeihen Das wird er dir nie verzeihen. He’ll never forgive you that.
As you can see, the dative object can be left out with some of the above verbs.
With a few verbs, the German ‘einem etwas’construction is quite different to that of the nearest English equivalent:
Das hat sie mir gestern mitgeteilt. She informed me of that yesterday. Die Polizei konnte ihr nichts nachweisen. The police couldn’t prove anything against her. Das hat sie mir aber verschwiegen. She didn’t tell me about that, though.
The dative has the widest range of uses of the German cases.
The dative can indicate a person on whose behalf the action is done. This often corresponds to an English phrase with for:
Sie schrieb mir seine Adresse auf. She wrote his address down for me. Fährt sie dir zu schnell? Is she driving too fast for you? Ich öffnete ihr die Tür. I opened the door for her.
The dative can indicate the body or articles of clothing. In most contexts, it is much more usual in German to use this construction than a possessive. If the possessor is the subject of the sentence, the pronoun is reflexive (see section 8.2):
Er sah ihr in die Augen. He looked into her eyes. Ich zog dem Kind den Mantel aus. I took the child’s coat off. Er zog sich den Mantel an. He put on his coat. Wann hast du dir das Bein gebrochen? When did you break your leg?
For the use of the dative case with ADJECTIVES, see section 3.11.
