Word
Meine Schwester hilft uns oft.
Meaning
My sister often helps us.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Meine Schwester hilft uns oft.
Why is the verb hilft instead of helft?
The verb helfen (to help) is a strong verb, meaning it has a vowel change. For "he", "she", and "it" (like Meine Schwester), the e changes to an i, making it hilft.
The lesson is about Dative verbs. Is uns in the Dative case here?
Yes! The verb helfen strictly requires the person receiving help to be in the Dative case. The Dative word for "us" is uns. It happens to look exactly the same as the Accusative word for "us", but it is definitely Dative in this sentence.
What if I wanted to say "My sister often helps me"?
Because helfen is a Dative verb, you must use the Dative pronoun for "me", which is mir. The sentence would be: Meine Schwester hilft mir oft. You cannot use the Accusative mich here.
In English we say "often helps", so why is oft at the very end of the sentence?
In a standard German statement, the conjugated verb must always be in the second position. Meine Schwester takes the first position, so the verb hilft must come next. This pushes the adverb oft (often) after the verb and the object.