Word
Der Arzt gibt mir ein Medikament.
Meaning
The doctor gives me a medication.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Der Arzt gibt mir ein Medikament.
ein
a, an (eine)
geben
to give
der Arzt
the doctor
mir
me / to me (dative)
Questions & Answers about Der Arzt gibt mir ein Medikament.
This lesson is about the imperative. Is this sentence an imperative?
No, this is a regular statement. If you wanted to turn this into an informal imperative (a command to one person), you would drop the subject and the verb ending, changing it to: Gib mir ein Medikament! (Give me a medication!).
Why is the verb gibt and not gebt? The infinitive is geben, right?
Yes, the infinitive is geben. However, it is a strong verb with a stem-vowel change. For the du and er/sie/es forms (like der Arzt here), the e in the stem changes to an i, making it er gibt.
Why do we use mir instead of mich for 'me'?
The verb geben (to give) usually involves two objects: the thing being given and the person receiving it. The person receiving the action is the indirect object, which requires the dative case in German. Therefore, the pronoun ich changes to its dative form mir.
Is ein Medikament in the nominative or accusative case here?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object (the thing being given). Since Medikament is a neuter noun (das Medikament), the accusative word for 'a' (ein) looks exactly the same as it does in the basic nominative case.