Dative of viewpoint (mir zu...)

Setting Boundaries: The Dative of Viewpoint

In English, when a workout is too hard or a schedule is too packed, we say it is "too intense for me" or "too much for him." We use the preposition "for" to show whose perspective or personal limit we are talking about.

In German, you don't need a preposition. Instead, you express this subjective standard using the dative case (the "indirect object" case) of the personal pronoun. Grammar books sometimes call this the dative of viewpoint.

To express that something crosses a personal limit, simply place the dative pronoun before zu (too) and an adjective:

• mir zu schnell (too fast for me)
• dir zu viel (too much for you)

Let's look at how this works when evaluating your own training pace or workload:

You can apply this to any person simply by swapping out the pronoun. For instance, use dir (for you) to comment on your conversation partner's limits:

Similarly, you can use ihm (for him), ihr (for her), uns (for us), or ihnen (for them) to describe how a strain or recovery period feels from someone else's perspective:

Finally, you can easily use this structure inside subordinate clauses. The dative pronoun typically sits right next to the subject of the clause, keeping the meaning exactly the same: