mich or mir, dich or dir: pronouns in the accusative and dative
CEFR A2 · part 2
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
weil and dass: the clause where the verb goes to the endJoining two clauses with weil, dass, wenn or ob and sending the conjugated verb to the…in, auf, an…: the nine that take two cases depending on wo or wohinChoosing the case with a single question: if the sentence answers wohin —where to, there…The adjective in front of the noun: when -e and when -enGiving the adjective an ending when it sits in front of the noun, with the short rule…war, hatte, konnte: the past tense people do say out loudUsing in the past the eight verbs a German never puts into the Perfekt when speaking…The imperative and German's three «you»: du, ihr, SieGiving an instruction to the three people German lets you address, and knowing which is…Comparing in German: -er, als, and am -stenComparing two things and pointing out the top one, with German's three pieces: the -er…The rule, in three lines
When a pronoun stops being the subject it changes shape, and there are two sets. Accusative: mich, dich, ihn, sie, es, uns, euch, sie. Dative: mir, dir, ihm, ihr, ihm, uns, euch, ihnen. The difference is usually one consonant —mich against mir, dich against dir— and you have to hear it. Plus an ordering rule: with TWO pronouns, the accusative comes first, the opposite of what happens with nouns: Er gibt es mir, but Er gibt mir das Buch.
The usual slip. Using the subject pronoun for everything, because it was learnt first: Er sieht ich. And the fine mistake is mixing up the two objects, mich for mir, which is half a consonant and changes the whole case. You decide by looking at the verb: if it is one of the dative verbs —helfen, danken, gefallen— use mir; otherwise mich.
Why it catches you out. English still has this and it is the best foothold in the whole German case system: me, him, her, us, them are object forms, and nobody says «he gives I the book». What English lost is the split between the two objects —«me» covers both mich and mir— so that is the only part to build from nothing.