Breakdown of Der Kollege kauft den Kuchen, aber er schmeckt ihm nicht.
er
he
kaufen
to buy
aber
but
nicht
not
schmecken
to taste
ihm
him / it / to him / to it (dative)
der Kuchen
the cake (simple, baked)
der Kollege
the colleague
Questions & Answers about Der Kollege kauft den Kuchen, aber er schmeckt ihm nicht.
Why does the second part start with er instead of es for the cake?
In German, pronouns must match the gender of the noun they replace. The word for cake is masculine (der Kuchen). Because it is masculine, you must use er to say "it", rather than the neuter es.
Why do we use ihm here instead of a regular object?
The verb schmecken (to taste) is one of the special verbs you are learning that always takes the Dative case. The German phrasing is closer to "it does not taste good to him". The Dative masculine pronoun for "to him" is ihm.
Why is the cake den Kuchen in the first half of the sentence?
In the first half, the colleague is doing the buying, making him the subject. The cake is the object being bought, which requires the Accusative case. For masculine nouns, the word for "the" changes from der to den in the Accusative.
Does the word aber change the position of the verb schmeckt?
No. The word aber (but) is a connecting word that does not count as a position in the new clause. The subject (er) takes position 1, and the verb (schmeckt) remains in its normal place at position 2.
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