Word
Ein treuer Freund gibt einem Mut.
Meaning
A loyal friend gives you courage.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ein treuer Freund gibt einem Mut.
ein
a, an (eine)
der Freund
the friend
geben
to give
man
one / you (impersonal)
Questions & Answers about Ein treuer Freund gibt einem Mut.
Why use einem here instead of man or einen?
The impersonal pronoun man (meaning "one" or the general "you") changes to einem in the dative case and einen in the accusative case. The verb geben (to give) requires a dative object for the person receiving something. Since the friend is giving courage to "you" (in a general sense), we use the dative einem.
Why is einem translated as "you" instead of "him" or "someone"?
In English, we frequently use "you" to talk about people in a general sense (for example, "A good friend gives you courage"). German expresses this general "you" using man. Because we need the dative case as the receiver of the action, man becomes einem.
Why does the adjective treu end in -er (treuer Freund)?
This is a masculine noun (der Freund) in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence. Since the word ein doesn't have a specific ending to show the gender here, the adjective has to do the work by taking the -er ending.
Is it normal to leave out the article before Mut?
Yes! Abstract nouns like Mut (courage), Hoffnung (hope), or Angst (fear) generally do not use an article in German when you are talking about the concept in a general, uncountable way. This is very similar to how it works in English.