Breakdown of Der Trainer lehrt uns den Schlag und den Tritt.
und
and
uns
us
der Trainer
the trainer / the coach
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
lehren
to teach (academic, formal)
der Schlag
the punch
der Tritt
the kick
Questions & Answers about Der Trainer lehrt uns den Schlag und den Tritt.
Since he is teaching the moves "to us", is "uns" in the dative case here?
No, it is actually in the accusative case! While uns looks identical in both dative and accusative, the verb lehren (to teach) is a special verb that takes a double accusative. This means both the person being taught (uns) and the things being taught (den Schlag und den Tritt) must take the accusative case.
Why do we use "den" for both Schlag and Tritt?
Both Schlag (punch) and Tritt (kick) are masculine nouns, normally der Schlag and der Tritt. Because they are the second part of the double accusative required by lehren, they change from der to den.
I usually hear "beibringen" for "to teach". Could I use that here instead of "lehren"?
Yes, and beibringen is actually more common in everyday spoken German! However, if you swap the verb, the grammar changes. Beibringen takes a dative person and an accusative thing, so the sentence would be: Der Trainer bringt uns (dative) den Schlag und den Tritt (accusative) bei. Lehren is a bit more formal and requires the double accusative.
Is there a trick to remembering the words Schlag and Tritt?
Yes! They are the noun forms of the very common verbs schlagen (to hit) and treten (to kick or step). Nouns formed directly from the root of a verb like this are almost always masculine, which helps explain why they both use der in the nominative case.
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