Position of the direct object and indirect object in German

The word order in German sentences is a very important piece of knowledge. When constructing sentences, we need to pay attention not only to grammar but also to the order of the elements within the sentence. Today's article will help you explore the positions of the direct object and the indirect object in a sentence.

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*******An object is the element that receives the action of the verb.

• The direct object (Akkusativobjekt), or case 4, is the object that is directly acted upon by the verb.

• The indirect object (Dativobjekt), or case 3, does not receive the action of the verb directly.

***Rules:

1. Rule 1: In noun form, the indirect object (Dativobjekt) comes before the direct object (Akkusativobjekt)

Ich gebe meinen Eltern die Blumen.

(I give the flowers to my parents.)

→ The verb geben requires 2 objects. The indirect object in case 3 (Dativ): meinen Eltern and the direct object in case 4 (Akkusativ): die Blumen. As you can see, the position of meinen Eltern is placed before the position of die Blumen.

1. Rule 2: In personal pronoun form, the direct object (Akkusativobjekt) comes before the indirect object (Dativobjekt)

Ich gebe meinen Eltern die Blumen.

→ Ich gebe sie ihnen.

→ sie here is the direct object, but since it is in personal pronoun form (Personalpronomen), it will be placed before the indirect object ihnen, which is also in personal pronoun form.

1. Rule 3: Personal pronouns always come before nouns.

a. Ich gebe meinen Eltern die Blumen.

→ We can replace meinen Eltern (the indirect object) with ihnen (a personal pronoun). Because ihnen is a personal pronoun, it will come before the noun die Blumen.→ Ich gebe ihnen die Blumen.

b. Ich gebe meinem Freund das Buch.

→ When replacing das Buch with es, es becomes the direct object but it is in the form of a personal pronoun (Personalpronomen), so it will be placed before the indirect object meinem Freund, which is a noun.

→ Ich gebe es meinem Freund.

***Some verbs that take both a direct object and an indirect object: geben, schenken, servieren, bringen, schreiben, kaufen, verkaufen, zeigen, wünschen, erklären, bestellen, bieten, glauben, senden, versprechen,...