Breakdown of Deutsch macht ihm Spaß.
machen
to make, to do
Deutsch
German
ihm
him / it / to him / to it (dative)
der Spaß
the fun
Spaß machen
to be fun (something is fun for someone)
Questions & Answers about Deutsch macht ihm Spaß.
Why does the sentence use macht (makes) instead of ist (is)?
In German, you don't say that an activity "is fun." Instead, you use the fixed phrase Spaß machen (literally: to make fun). So, Deutsch macht Spaß is the natural way to say "German is fun."
Why is the pronoun ihm used here instead of ihn or er?
The phrase Spaß machen requires the dative case for the person experiencing the fun. You can think of it as "German makes fun to him." That is why we use the dative pronoun ihm rather than the subject pronoun er (he) or the accusative pronoun ihn (him).
How would I change this to say "German is fun for me" or "for her"?
You simply swap out ihm for the matching dative pronoun! "German is fun for me" becomes Deutsch macht mir Spaß, and "German is fun for her" becomes Deutsch macht ihr Spaß.
Can I put ihm at the end and say "Deutsch macht Spaß ihm"?
No, that would sound unnatural. In German, pronouns like ihm usually want to sit right after the conjugated verb (macht). The noun Spaß is pushed to the end of the sentence.
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