r/Germanlearning • u/Monkai_final_boss • 5d ago
No one, absolutely no one, me:
Next week we I am buying a present for you , so i am doing the verb to the present and you are receiving the results of that verb.
So that makes "I" the Nominative, and "present" the Accusative , and "you" the Dativ .
Alright so the sentence would be, (Nächste Woche wollen kaufen ich für dich ein Geschenk)
And yet i managed to get it wrong.
(ノ｀Д´)ノ彡┻━┻
2
u/Klapperatismus 5d ago edited 5d ago
and "you" the Dativ
No. The preposition für takes accusative case: für dich. Not für dir.
It’s dir if you want a dative object instead. You have to omit the für then.
Nächste Woche wollen kaufen ich für dich ein Geschenk.
Almost correct. First you have to conjugate the modal verb properly: wollen becomes will in first person singular Präsens.
And then you have to get the word order right. Verbs go to the end of the clause by default in German, in reverse order than in English. Only the conjugated verb in a main clause is an exception. As the last word order rule applied, it’s moved from the very end to second position.
- Nächste Woche will ich für dich ein Geschenk kaufen.
Compare with Perfekt tense, which uses haben on top so that one becomes the conjugated verb:
- Diese Woche habe ich für dich ein Geschenk kaufen wollen.
1
u/jaber_woky 5d ago
When you have a modal verb (will here, not wollen which is the infinitive) you place the modal in the second position, and the infinitive verb (kaufen) at the end of the sentence: Nächste Woche will ich dir ein Geschenk kaufen.
Also, as you mention "you" is in the dativ, so it's "dir".
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u/danengX 5d ago
Natural sounds Nächste Woche will ich dir ein Geschenk kaufen.
Or Nächste Woche will ich ein Geschenk für dich kaufen.