Breakdown of Der Nachbar hilft mir morgen.
morgen
tomorrow
helfen
to help
mir
me / to me (dative)
der Nachbar
the neighbor (male)
Questions & Answers about Der Nachbar hilft mir morgen.
Why does this sentence use mir instead of mich?
The verb helfen (to help) is one of the special German verbs that always requires its object to be in the dative case. Even though 'me' feels like a direct object in English, German treats it as a dative object. Therefore, the accusative pronoun mich changes to the dative pronoun mir.
Why is the verb spelled hilft instead of helft?
Helfen is a strong (irregular) verb. When conjugated for er/sie/es (he/she/it) or du (you), the stem vowel -e- changes to -i-. Because der Nachbar is a 'he' (third-person singular), the verb becomes hilft.
The English translation says 'is helping ... tomorrow', but isn't hilft in the present tense?
Yes! In German, you can often use the present tense to talk about the future, as long as there is a time word in the sentence that makes it clear. Because we have the word morgen (tomorrow), the present tense hilft naturally translates to a future action.
Why is morgen not capitalized here? Doesn't it mean 'morning'?
When spelled with a lowercase m, morgen is an adverb meaning 'tomorrow'. If you want to say 'morning', it is a noun and must be capitalized: der Morgen.