Questions & Answers about Der Hund schläft bei ihm.
Why do we use ihm instead of er or ihn?
The word bei is a preposition that strictly requires the dative case. Because we are talking about a male (he, or er), we must change it to the dative form, which is ihm. You can never say bei er or bei ihn.
Could bei ihm also mean at his house?
Yes! Depending on the context, bei ihm can mean the dog is sleeping physically next to him, or it can mean the dog is staying overnight at his place (his house or apartment). The preposition bei is very commonly used to say you are at someone's home.
I learned that the verb for to sleep is schlafen. Why does it have an umlaut (ä) here?
schlafen is a stem-changing verb. For the third-person singular (he/she/it) and the informal you form, the vowel a changes to ä. Because the dog (der Hund) is the subject doing the action, we use the he/it form, which is schläft.
Does German have a separate word for is sleeping compared to sleeps?
No, German does not have a continuous -ing form for verbs like English does. The single word schläft covers both sleeps and is sleeping. You just choose the translation that sounds most natural in English!
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