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German Dative Verbs with Examples

In this lesson I will explain pretty much every dative verb you will ever come across. These are German verbs that for some reason or other require a dative object. Similar to dative phrases, these verbs ignore normal logic for choosing the case of the object and instead of the accusative case, they use the dative case. I’ll start with a brief overview of why most of these verbs use the dative case with their objects instead of the accusative case and then show you examples of each of the dative verbs. If you want to skip the explanation, which I don’t recommend, you can do so via the links in the table of contents below.

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Other Dative Case Lessons in This Series

Indirect Objects with the Dative Case
What is a dative sentence?
Personal Pronouns of the Dative Case
Word Order with Direct & Indirect Objects
Prepositions Used with the Dative Case
Dative Prepositions and Their Common Verb Partners
Wechselpräpositionen (Two-Way Prepositions)
Wechselpräpositionen and Their Common Verb Partners with the Dative Case
Special Dative Phrases
Dative Verbs
Everything Dative Case Materials

Why do dative verbs require dative objects?

Normally, when a verb has a direct object, that object is used with the accusative case. When the direct object is directed towards another object, that second object is called the indirect object and uses the dative case. Most of the time, the indirect object will be a person. This leads us to the dative verbs. A lot of the time, these verbs sort of imply a direct object. This is often done, because the dative verb takes the place of the direct object. It shows the thing given is the noun version of the verb. For example: This happens with verbs like “antworten” (to answer). When you answer someone, you are giving them an answer. This makes them the indirect object of the sentence and therefore dative.

Er gibt mir die Antwort.
He gives me the answer.

Er antwortet mir.
He answers me.

With the verb “helfen” (to help) you are giving someone help. Again, the person is then used in the dative case.

Ich gebe meinem Vater Hilfe.
I am giving my father help.

Ich helfe meinem Vater.
I am helping my father.

Keep in mind that the versions of the sentences I just gave using “geben” are not considered the standard way to express what we are saying. I am simply showing you those versions, so you see how the direct object was dissolved into the verb. It is grammatically correct to use either version, but the versions with the verbs “helfen” or “antworten” are definitely more popular.

What’s up with the verb “gefallen”?

This logic helps explain some of the most annoying dative verbs for English speakers such as “gefallen” (to like). Take a look at this example.

Diese Schuhe gefallen mir.
I like these shoes.

The number one complaint about this verb is that the subject and object are opposites between the two languages. If you use the thought process I have outlined so far, however, you can see that the verb “gefallen” actually means that the subject gives the indirect object pleasure.

Diese Schuhe geben mir Freude.
These shoes give me joy.

Diese Schuhe gefallen mir.
These shoes are pleasing to me.
(I like these shoes.)

ähneln
to resemble

While this kind of logic works for quite a few dative verbs, you will have a problem stretching this kind of logic to work with other dative verbs. ähneln – to resemble, for example, doesn’t follow this logic. You can’t give someone a resemblance and even if you could, it would be the opposite of what the German verb means. You might be better off rewording things to say “he casts a resemblance to someone”. This logic makes sense for verbs like “ähneln”.

Herr Antrim ähnelt seinem Vater sehr.
Mr. Antrim really resembles his father.

begegnen
to meet someone (by chance)

There are a few other odd ones that don’t really fit any of the logical categories I have explained so far. This would include verbs like “begegnen” (to meet someone by chance). This verb is confusing on a few levels. First of all, it uses “sein” in the Perfekt tense, which shows you that this verb is more closely related to the English phrase “to bump into someone”. Secondly, if you watched my video about the Perfekt, you would know that I said verbs with direct objects don’t use “sein” in the Perfekt. This actually explains why the dative case is needed here. It isn’t that you are meeting them. That would be “treffen”. You are going somewhere and you happen upon them. You meet to them. Therefore, dative.

Der Dieb ist dem Polizist schon einmal begegnet.
The thief met the police officer before.

The Most Popular German Dative Verbs

In the 3 Minuten Deutsch lesson above, I explained how to use dative verbs, but due to time constraints, I couldn’t fit in any real substantive information about the weirdness that occurs with certain verbs. For that reason, I am going to be focusing on that in the next few paragraphs. You should watch the video above first, as it will give you a general overview of the topic before diving into the word order problem.

This lesson is a part of the 3 Minuten Deutsch series. While this lesson is not included in the FREE materials bundle to go with the 3 Minuten Deutsch series, you can get a ton of other free materials by clicking here.

Dative Verbs in German without Weird Word Order

Certain dative verbs are completely normal. They take a direct object and that direct object happens to be used in the dative case. Those verbs are relatively simple to translate. Ask yourself, “Whom are you answering/thanking/following/helping/believing/forgiving?” The answer to those questions will tell you what noun or pronoun should be in the dative case when writing a sentence. Here are a few examples of those so you know what I mean by the easy ones.

antworten
to answer

Der Schuler antwortet der Lehrerin.
The student is answering the teacher.

danken
to thank

Ich danke meiner Mutter jeden Morgen.
I thank my mother every morning.

folgen
to follow

Ich werde der Eisenbahn folgen.
I will follow the railway.

helfen
to help

Er hilft dem Obdachlosen.
He is helping the homeless man.

glauben
to believe

Das Kind glaubt den Eltern.
The child believes the parents.

verzeihen
to forgive

Ich verzeihe dem Verbrecher nicht.
I am not forgiving the criminal.

As you can see, the translations for each of those sentences is pretty simple. You have a subject and a direct object, but the direct object is in the dative case, because we used a dative verb. It is simply a matter of remembering to use the dative case in German.

Dative Verbs in German with Weird Word Order

There are, however, certain verbs on this list that are a little more difficult to translate due to the fact that we wouldn’t say it that way in English. It is best to show a few examples and go through each one literally in order to highlight the changes.

fehlen
to be lacking

Die Nase fehlt dem Schneemann noch.
The nose fails the snow man still (literal translation).

Normally, in English we wouldn’t say something like I just translated above. You might, however, hear someone say something similar in German. In English we would say something along the lines of “The snowman still needs a nose.” or “The snowman is still missing a nose.” In both of those versions, the snow man is the subject of the English sentence. In German, however, you would use the snowman as the dative object and the nose would be the subject. It is counterintuitive to native English speakers. It takes a lot of practice and seeing examples of how others use the verb “fehlen” to really understand how to use it on your own.

danken - to thank Der Kunde dankt dem Verkäufer. - The customer thanks the sales person. fehlen - to be lacking Die Schuhe fehlen dem Kind. The child is missing the shoes. — danken – to thank fehlen – to be lacking

gefallen
to like

Das T-Shirt gefällt dem Mann.
The t-shirt likes the man. (literal translation)

Again, this verb is counterintuitive to native English speakers. Normally, we would say something along the lines of “The man likes the t-shirt.” This verb is the exact opposite of what we would think in English. The easy work around for this verb is to translate the sentence as “The t-shirt is pleasing to the man.” It is still a grammatically awkward sentence, but at least you get which thing is nominative and which one is dative. You just have to remember that the “to” is implied in the German version.

folgen - to follow Ich folge dem Mann durch die Gasse. - I am following the man through the alley. gefallen - to like Der Ring gefällt dem Kunden. - The customer likes the ring. — folgen – to follow gefallen – to like

passieren
to happen

Etwas passiert dem Mann.
Something is happening to the man.

This verb really isn’t that bad to translate. It is just a bit tricky to use. Usually you use either “das” or “es” as the subject, which means that you won’t really encounter any other form other than the “er, sie, es” form of this verb. It also makes the translation relatively simple, because the subject is always either “it” or “that”. The trouble comes from the object being in the dative case. In English we would say “to him” or “to the man”, but in German you simply use the dative form of that noun or pronoun.

stehen
to suit

Der Hut steht der Königin gut.
The hat suits the queen well.

The problem with this verb isn’t the fact that it uses the dative case, but that it is the same verb that means “to stand”. If it is used with a direct object, that object is used in the dative case and the verb means “to suit”. If there is no direct object, the verb means “to stand”.

The Biggest List of Dative Verbs in German You Have Ever Seen

Now that we have the general idea out of the way, we can get to some examples. This video does not include all of the dative verbs in the German language, but it does include a very large number of them.