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### Giving Credit with "dank"

Restoring a vintage classic car is a team effort. When you want to express gratitude or attribute a successful outcome to someone or something, you use the causal preposition **dank** (thanks to).

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Like all prepositions, **dank** forces the noun that follows it into a specific case. Uniquely, you can use it with either the Dative or the Genitive case. Both are completely correct, though the Dative is especially common in everyday spoken German.

Notice how the masculine noun *der Mechaniker* and the feminine noun *die Karosserie* change to match their Dative forms (*dem Mechaniker*, *der Karosserie*):

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### Formal Polish: "dank" with the Genitive

In written German, or when speaking a bit more formally, you will frequently see **dank** paired with the Genitive case. 

When using the Genitive, remember that masculine and neuter nouns take an *-s* or *-es* ending. For example, the masculine noun *der Lack* becomes *des Lacks*.

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### Using "dank" with Plurals

When attributing success to multiple people or things, the Dative case is heavily preferred. German speakers use the Dative here to avoid ambiguity, as the plural Genitive form is often not clearly distinct.

To use the plural Dative, change the plural article to *den* and remember to add an extra *-n* to the end of the noun itself, just as with any other Dative plural structure.

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The causal preposition (dank)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (der, die, das)

Indefinite articles (ein, eine)

Regular verbs and statement word order (ich -e, er -t)

The second person (du -st, Sie -en)

Yes/No questions

The verb 'to have' (habe, hast, hat)

Plural pronouns and regular verbs (wir, ihr, sie)

Plural 'to be' and 'to have' (sind, haben)

Plural nouns and the plural article (die)

Sentence negation (nicht)

Noun negation (kein, keine)

Question words (wer, was, wo, wie)

Numbers 0 to 12 (null, eins, zwei)

The accusative case (den, die, das)

Indefinite accusative articles (einen, keinen)

Direct object pronouns (mich, dich, ihn)

There is / there are (es gibt)

Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel changes: a to ä (er fährt)

Weather and conditions (es regnet)

First- and second-person possessives in the nominative (mein, dein, Ihr)

First- and second-person possessives in the accusative (meinen, deinen, Ihren)

Third-person and plural possessives (sein, ihr, unser, euer)

Possession with names (Annas Auto)

Demonstrative pronouns (dieser, diese, dieses)

Expressing preference (gern, lieber)

Asking about direction and origin (woher, wohin)

Expressing ability (können)

Polite requests (möchten)

Expressing intention (wollen)

Modal verbs of obligation and permission (müssen, dürfen)

Separable prefix verbs

Adverbs of frequency (immer, oft, manchmal, nie)

The Dative case and definite articles (dem, der, den)

Dative indefinite and negative articles (einem, einer, keinem)

Dative personal pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr...)

Dative verbs (helfen, danken, gefallen, schmecken)

Dative prepositions (aus, bei, mit, nach...)

Accusative prepositions (für, ohne, gegen)

Two-way prepositions for location (in, an, auf...)

Informal singular imperative (mach, komm)

Plural and formal imperative (macht, machen Sie)

Coordinating conjunctions (und, oder, aber, denn)

Simple past of sein and haben (war, hatte)

The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

Past tense: irregular verbs (ge-...-en)

The perfect tense: mixed verbs (gebracht, gekannt)

The perfect tense with sein (ist gegangen)

The perfect tense: separable verbs (eingekauft)

The perfect tense: inseparable and -ieren verbs (besucht, studiert)

Informal singular commands (mach, lern)

Numbers 13 to 20 (dreizehn to zwanzig)

Counting by tens to 100 (dreißig, vierzig)

Telling time (Uhr, halb, Viertel, vor, nach)

Numbers 21 to 99 (einundzwanzig, zweiunddreißig)

Greetings and farewells

Thank you, sorry and good wishes

Everyday replies

Numbers 100 to 1,000,000 (hundert, tausend...)

Becoming and getting (werden)

The impersonal pronoun (man)

Indefinite pronouns (jemand, niemand...)

Time sequence prepositions (vor, nach, bei)

Time span prepositions (von... bis, seit, für)

Adverbs of sequence (zuerst, dann, danach)

Two-way prepositions for direction (in, auf, an...)

Directional adverbs (hin, her)

Placement verbs (setzen, stellen, legen)

Months of the year (Januar, Februar)

The four seasons (Frühling, Sommer)

Time prepositions and indefinite pronouns (an, in, um)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)

Ordinals 20th and beyond (-ste, -sten)

Placement vs. location verbs (stellen vs. stehen)

Accusative reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich)

Accusative reflexive verbs (sich freuen)

Dative reflexive pronouns (mir, dir, sich)

Dative reflexive verbs (sich etwas merken)

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (-te)

Temporal prepositions (an, in, um)

Double objects with nouns

Double objects with pronouns

The modal verb for advice (sollen)

Simple past of modal verbs (musste, wollte...)

Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

Adverbial connectors of consequence (deshalb, darum...)

Subordinate clauses for statements (dass)

Question	Answer
thanks to	dank
the classic car	der Oldtimer
Thanks to the mechanic, the classic car is finally running again.	Dank dem Mechaniker fährt der Oldtimer endlich wieder.
the collector	der Sammler
original	original
Thanks to this collector, the spare parts are original.	Dank diesem Sammler sind die Ersatzteile original.
the bodywork	die Karosserie
the rust	der Rost
Thanks to the new bodywork, there is no more rust.	Dank der neuen Karosserie gibt es keinen Rost mehr.
The rust has been removed from the classic car.	Der Rost ist vom Oldtimer entfernt worden.
the paintwork	der Lack
to shine (reflect light)	glänzen
Thanks to the new paintwork, the car shines in the sun.	Dank des neuen Lacks glänzt das Auto in der Sonne.
to install (build in)	einbauen
We have carefully installed the repaired original engine.	Wir haben den reparierten originalen Motor vorsichtig eingebaut.
That is the bodywork for which the collector paid a lot of money.	Das ist die Karosserie, für die der Sammler viel Geld bezahlt hat.
When we install the engine, the paintwork already shines.	Wenn wir den Motor einbauen, glänzt der Lack schon.
Thanks to the original spare parts, everything works again.	Dank den originalen Ersatzteilen funktioniert alles wieder.