Other uses of the dative case
| Envelopes addressed to men, where the title used is Herr, require the dative of Herr to be used because what is implied is ‘To Mr. X’, e.g. Herrn Joachim Polenz .A considerable number of commonly used verbs take an indirect object, i.e. dative object, where in English the same verbs take a direct object (see 10.4.4 for use of these verbs in the passive), e.g.:
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| danken (to thank s.o.) Ich danke dir/Ihnen. Thank you. (a stylistic variant of danke schön) helfen (to help s.o.) Die Krankenschwester hat dem Patienten nicht geholfen. The nurse did not help the patient. antworten (to answer s.o.) |
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nützen (to be of use to s.o.) passen (to suit) schaden (to be harmful to, to damage) schmeicheln (to latter) trauen (to trust) vertrauen (to have trust in) wehtun (to hurt) widersprechen (to contradict) zustimmen (to agree with s.t.) |
