Dative pronouns

The dative pronoun is the person something is given to, said to, or done for. It is also what every dative preposition and every dative verb demands.

Look down the last column for the shape: the dative is the one with -r or -m on the end. mir, dir, ihr — ihm, ihnen. The accusative column has no such ending. That pattern is quicker to hold onto than nine separate words.

mich = me, acted on. mir = to me / for me. Er sieht mich but Er hilft mir.

Two of these clash in a way worth noticing. ihr means to her — but ihr is also the word for you (plural) and for her as a possessive. And the dative of sie (they) is ihnen, while the formal Sie takes Ihnen with a capital I. Context and capitals do the disambiguating.

• Kannst du mir helfen?

  Can you help me?

  helfen always takes the dative

• Ich gebe ihr das Buch.

  I am giving her the book.

  she receives → ihr; the book is the direct object

• Das gehört ihm.

  That belongs to him.

• Sie spricht mit uns.

  She is talking to us.

  mit takes the dative

• Ich schreibe Ihnen morgen.

  I will write to you tomorrow.

  formal, capital I

• Wie geht es dir?

  How are you?

  literally "how goes it to you"

A small set of very common verbs take a dative object where English would use a plain one: helfen (help), danken (thank), gehören (belong), gefallen (please, appeal to), antworten (answer). Learn these five with mir attached and you will rarely go wrong.