Breakdown of Man hilft dem Kind in dem Krankenhaus.
das Kind
the child
in
in
helfen
to help
man
one / you (impersonal)
das Krankenhaus
the hospital
Questions & Answers about Man hilft dem Kind in dem Krankenhaus.
How does the pronoun man work in this sentence?
Man is an impersonal pronoun that means "one," "people," or a general "they." It acts as the subject of the sentence (so it is in the nominative case). Even though it represents people in general, it always takes a 3rd-person singular verb, which is why we use hilft (helps) instead of the plural helfen.
Why does the child get the dative article dem?
The verb helfen (to help) always forces its object into the dative case. Since Kind is a neuter noun, the article changes from the standard das to the dative dem.
Why do we use in dem Krankenhaus instead of in das Krankenhaus?
The preposition in is a "two-way preposition." Because we are talking about a fixed location where the action happens (in the hospital) rather than movement toward a new destination (into the hospital), we must use the dative case.
Is it possible to combine in and dem?
Yes! In everyday German, in dem is almost always combined into the shorter word im. You will frequently hear this sentence spoken as Man hilft dem Kind im Krankenhaus.
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