Person and thing
Two complements
The person receiving something normally appears in the dative. The transferred thing appears in the accusative.
Example
Die Mutter gibt dem Kind (dative) den Ball (accusative).
Basic order
Two nouns: dative before accusative
If both objects are nouns, the dative object normally comes before the accusative object.
- Der Lehrer erklärt den Schülern die Aufgabe.
- Wir schenken unserer Freundin ein Buch.
Short words first
Object order with pronouns
A pronoun normally comes before a noun. If both objects are pronouns, accusative usually comes before dative.
| Objects | Example |
|---|---|
| two nouns | Ich gebe dem Kind den Ball. |
| dative pronoun + noun | Ich gebe ihm den Ball. |
| accusative pronoun + noun | Ich gebe ihn dem Kind. |
| two pronouns | Ich gebe ihn ihm. |
Core vocabulary
Common verbs with two objects
anbieten, beantworten, bringen, erklären, erzählen, geben, leihen, schicken, schenken, schreiben, zeigen
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