2

I have this sentence in my workbook:

Ihre Arbeit versteht sie sehr gut.

Shouldn't it be the following?

Ihrer Arbeit versteht sie sehr gut.

To me it appears as the third case – dative.

Björn Friedrich
  • 22,709
  • 3
  • 47
  • 90
John Ronald
  • 383
  • 2
  • 10
  • 3
    Could you explain why do you expect dative? – c.p. Mar 18 '20 at 21:32
  • Btw, the order of the cases may vary a little bit. I learned them ordered as nominativ, accusativ, genitiv und dativ. It was so roughly until the middle 90s. Since then, I find N-A-D-G ordering everywhere; it might root also in that genitiv shows a decreasing tendency with the decades. – peterh Mar 19 '20 at 03:43
  • I was confused by my language. We use dativ in this case. – John Ronald Mar 19 '20 at 09:56
  • @JohnRonald In which language, if you don't mind to tell, is to understand dative? – c.p. Mar 19 '20 at 19:23
  • It is in Czech language. – John Ronald Mar 19 '20 at 20:52
  • @JohnRonald Wow, that's true. This is quite differnt from other (Slavonic) languages. Noch wieder was gelernt! – c.p. Mar 21 '20 at 18:35
  • 1
    As a general rule, verbs with the prefix ver- almost always require the accusative. Of course, sometimes there can be a dative object too. – RHa Mar 22 '20 at 21:46

2 Answers2

4

The verb verstehen, irrespective of the particular denotation, requires the accusative. For example:

  • Sie versteht ihr Handeln. (singular neuter)
  • Sie versteht ihren Job. (singular male)
  • Sie versteht ihre Arbeit. (singular female)
  • Sie versteht ihre Aufgaben. (plural)
  • Verstehen Sie mich?

Using the dative would be wrong. Thus, the sentence

Ihre Arbeit versteht sie sehr gut.

is correct.

Björn Friedrich
  • 22,709
  • 3
  • 47
  • 90
0

"Ihre Arbeit" is here the object. Here we have an object-verb-subject ordering.

Objects are in accusative (mostly).

peterh
  • 1,879
  • 5
  • 24
  • 39
  • 1
    German has accusative, dative and genitive objects. (Maybe also nominative objects, depending on the definition of object.) – David Vogt Mar 19 '20 at 07:27
  • This answer is correct for the given case in the question. But you should remove that "always" as David Vogt mentions. – äüö Mar 19 '20 at 09:28
  • 1
    @äüö I did it.. – peterh Mar 19 '20 at 09:46
  • @DavidVogt Can you show me an example sentence where the object is not in accusative? – peterh Mar 19 '20 at 09:46
  • "Ihrer Arbeit ist sie sich sicher." is such an example for genitive, "Bei ihrer Arbeit ist sie sich sicher" is an example for dative. The demanded grammar case depends on the verb in combination with the used preposition. See for instance https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/5550/sich-bei-etwas-sicher-sein-or-sich-etwasgen-sicher-sein – äüö Mar 19 '20 at 09:57
  • @äüö In the first sentence I would believe "ihrer Arbeit" is a dativ. And in neither sentences are they objects, but they are adverbs. – peterh Mar 19 '20 at 10:01
  • You ask "Wessen ist sie sich sicher?" and you see it is genitive. And "Arbeit" is a substantive, so it cannot be an adverb. – äüö Mar 19 '20 at 10:06
  • https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/33815/a-list-of-verbs-that-take-only-dative-objects – David Vogt Mar 19 '20 at 10:11
  • @DavidVogt Ok. Other languages define "object" differently. Typically, objects are exclusively in accusative. What in German a "non-accusative object", is called differently in them ("Adverb" ?). I now think, German works somehow so: 1) object is in accusative by default 2) except if it is an object in a verb + preposition + case triade (like "denken an + D", these must be memorized case-by-case by language learners). – peterh Mar 22 '20 at 13:12