Breakdown of Die Mutter freut sich, denn der Opa leiht dem Kind das Buch.
das Kind
the child
das Buch
the book
die Mutter
the mother
der Opa
the grandpa
denn
because
sich freuen
to be happy / to look forward to
leihen
to lend
Questions & Answers about Die Mutter freut sich, denn der Opa leiht dem Kind das Buch.
Why does dem Kind come before das Buch?
In German, when a sentence has both a dative noun (the receiver) and an accusative noun (the object being acted upon), the dative noun almost always comes first. So dem Kind must come before das Buch.
Why is it dem Kind instead of das Kind?
The verb leihen (to lend) takes two objects: the thing being lent (accusative) and the person receiving it (dative). Since Kind is a neuter noun, its article changes from das to dem in the dative case.
Does the word denn change the word order in the second half of the sentence?
No, denn (because) connects two sentences without changing the word order. Notice how the second part starts normally with the subject der Opa followed by the verb leiht. If we used weil (which also means because), the verb leiht would be pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Why is the word sich used in the first part of the sentence?
The verb sich freuen (to be happy or glad) is a reflexive verb. This means it requires a reflexive pronoun to show who is experiencing the feeling. For a third-person subject like Die Mutter, the correct reflexive pronoun is sich.
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