Word
Ich erinnere mich nicht an den Film.
Meaning
I do not remember the movie.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ich erinnere mich nicht an den Film.
ich
I
nicht
not
der Film
the movie / the film
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
Questions & Answers about Ich erinnere mich nicht an den Film.
Why is there a mich in this sentence?
In German, the verb for "to remember" is sich erinnern. It is a reflexive verb, which means it requires a reflexive pronoun. You are literally saying "I remember myself." Since this verb takes the accusative case, we use mich instead of the dative mir.
Why do we need the word an? Doesn't the sentence translate to "I remember at the movie"?
Many German verbs team up with a specific preposition. The verb sich erinnern always pairs with an to mean "to remember something." You just have to learn them as a package deal: sich erinnern an.
Why is it den Film instead of der Film?
The fixed preposition an requires the accusative case when paired with sich erinnern. Because Film is a masculine noun (der Film), it must change to den Film in the accusative case.
Why does nicht go exactly there, before an den Film?
In German, nicht likes to sit right before the specific part of the sentence it is negating. Here, it negates the prepositional phrase an den Film. Furthermore, reflexive pronouns like mich always stay as close to the verb as possible, which naturally pushes nicht further back in the sentence.