Laura will ihrem Freund beim Kochen helfen.
In this sentence ihrem is used instead of ihren. Why is that? There is no dative preposition here.
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Olafant
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Ambika Jangir
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See also https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/25284/willst-du-der-sch%c3%bclerin-helfen-why-dative-case-der-sch%c3%bclerin-but-not-die-s, https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/65288/in-the-sentence-ich-begegnete-einem-alten-freund-in-berlin-why-the-dative-ein and possibly others. – DonHolgo Aug 31 '21 at 09:44
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Not only prepositions but also verbs determine which case to use in German.
While most of the verbs in German require accusative case, there are several verbs that require dative case and even some that require genitive case.
Helfen is one of the verbs that require dative case.
If you look up a verb in dwds.de you will find a lot of example sentences. That might help you to figure out which case to use with a verb.
Olafant
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In a simple sentence yes. There might be construction (e.g. with infinitive and zu) where other rules apply. But normally: yes. – Olafant Aug 31 '21 at 07:43
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Dative verbs are covered in Wikipedia, though I'm not a fan of how they explain it. Any good grammar should cover this topic as well. – RDBury Aug 31 '21 at 08:45
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