Breakdown of Der Trainer lehrt mich den schnellen Angriff.
schnell
fast, quickly
mich
me
der Trainer
the trainer / the coach
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
lehren
to teach (academic, formal)
der Angriff
the attack
Questions & Answers about Der Trainer lehrt mich den schnellen Angriff.
Wait, why is it mich instead of mir? Shouldn't the person being taught be in the Dative case?
Usually, yes! Verbs that involve giving or showing something to someone use the Dative for the person. However, lehren (to teach) is a special exception in German. It requires a double Accusative. Both the person being taught (mich) and the subject being taught (den schnellen Angriff) must be in the Accusative case here.
Could I use beibringen instead of lehren in this context?
Yes, and in everyday spoken German, beibringen is actually more common than lehren. But be careful: if you use beibringen, it follows the normal rule of Dative for the person and Accusative for the thing. The sentence would change to: Der Trainer bringt mir den schnellen Angriff bei.
Why does the adjective have an -en ending in schnellen?
The phrase den schnellen Angriff is masculine Accusative. When an adjective comes after a definite article like den, it takes the weak declension ending, which is -en for masculine Accusative nouns.
What is the root of the noun Angriff?
Der Angriff means the attack or the charge, which is very commonly used in sports. It comes from the separable verb angreifen (to attack). Knowing that greifen means to grab or to grasp helps paint the picture of aggressively taking hold of the game or opponent.
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