Breakdown of Mach dir keine Sorgen!
kein
no, not any
dir
you / to you [informal singular, dative]
sich Sorgen machen
to worry
Questions & Answers about Mach dir keine Sorgen!
Why does this sentence use dir instead of dich?
The phrase for 'to worry' is sich Sorgen machen. Because the sentence already has a direct object in the accusative case (keine Sorgen), the reflexive pronoun must be in the dative case (dir). You can think of it literally as 'Make no worries for yourself.'
Why do we use keine here instead of nicht to mean 'not'?
In German, when you negate a noun that has no article (like Sorgen), you use a form of kein. Because Sorgen is plural, the ending is -e, making it keine. We use nicht to negate verbs or adjectives, but here you are literally commanding someone to make 'no' worries.
Why is the verb just Mach without an ending?
This is the informal singular command, or imperative. When you give an order to someone you address as du, you take the present tense form (machst) and drop the -st ending. You also drop the word du completely.
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