Reflexive Verbs in the Dative Case
What is a reflexive verb?
A German reflexive verb describes an action of someone (subject) where the action reflects back to the subject. German reflexive verbs are used in connection with a reflexive pronoun such as myself or yourself in English. Reflexive verbs are very common in the German language and they of course depend on the case. Best to fresh up the German cases in our blog How the German Cases work – Nominative, Accusative, Dative and Genitive
In this blog we are only looking at reflexive verbs in the dative case. Don’t miss out our blog about German Reflexive Verbs in the Accusative Case 🙂
When to use a reflexive verb?
Reflexive verbs are used:
– to describe things you do to yourself
– to describe a sudden change of some sort (getting dressed, being in a hurry)
How to build a sentence with a reflexive verb?
| Du wäschst dir die Hände. | = | You wash (yourself) the hands. |
| Du | = | Subject |
| wäschst | = | reflexive verb |
| dir | = | reflexive pronoun |
Dative case
If the reflexive pronoun is the indirect object in the sentence the case will be dative. Or to make it simpler:
If there are two objects then the reflexive pronoun takes the dative.
Reflexive pronouns
| Dative | Meaning |
| mir | myself |
| dir | yourself |
| sich | himself/herself/itself |
| uns | ourselves |
| euch | yourselves |
| sich | themselves |
| sich | yourself/yourselves |
Reflexive Verbs which are followed by the Dative Case
| Reflexive Verb | Meaning | Example Sentence |
| sich abgewöhnen | to give something up | Ich gewöhne mir das Rauchen ab. |
| sich anhören | to listen to | Hörst du dir das neue Album an? |
| sich ansehen | to watch something | Er sieht sich den Film im Kino an. |
| sich einbilden | to imagine something | Wir bilden uns das Gespenst nur ein. |
| sich erlauben | to allow something | Meine Mutter erlaubt mir nicht auf die Party zu gehen. |
| sich kaufen | to buy oneself | Wir kaufen uns eine Katze. |
| sich leisten | to afford | Das Auto kann ich mir nicht leisten. |
| sich merken | to keep in mind | Diesen Vorfall merke ich mir. |
| sich vornehmen | to undertake something | Katja nimmt sich vor, mehr Sport zu machen. |
| sich vorstellen | to imagine | Das Leben in Australien stelle ich mir toll vor. |
| sich wünschen | to wish | Was wünscht du dir zu Weihnachten? |