German Grammar A–Z
Look up German grammar topics A–Z, organized by category and level — with clear explanations and examples.
Position of Direct and Indirect Objects
The word order of German sentences is a very important area of knowledge. When forming sentences, we need to care not only about grammar but also about the order of the elements in the sentence. Today's article will help you learn about the position of the direct object and the indirect object in a sentence.
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***The object is the element affected by the verb.
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The direct object (Akkusativobjekt), or the 4th case, is the object directly affected by the verb.
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The indirect object (Dativobjekt), or the 3rd case, is not directly affected by the verb.
***Rules:
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Rule 1: In noun form, the indirect object (Dativobjekt) comes before the direct object (Akkusativobjekt)
Ich gebe meinen Eltern die Blumen.
(I give my parents the flowers.)
→ The verb geben requires 2 objects. The indirect object in the 3rd case (Dativ): meinen Eltern and the direct object in the 4th case (Akkusativ): die Blumen. As you can see, meinen Eltern is placed before die Blumen.
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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 because it is in personal pronoun form (Personalpronomen), it stands before the indirect object ihnen, which is also a personal pronoun.
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Rule 3: A personal pronoun always comes before a noun.
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 stands before the noun die Blumen.
→ Ich gebe ihnen die Blumen.
b. Ich gebe meinem Freund das Buch.
→ When das Buch is replaced with es, es becomes the direct object, but because it is in personal pronoun form (Personalpronomen), it stands 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,...
