Breakdown of Jemand muss dem Jungen den Dreck aus dem Gesicht waschen.
aus
from / out of (made of)
der Junge
the boy
müssen
to have to, must
jemand
someone
waschen
to wash
das Gesicht
the face
der Dreck
the dirt (filth, muck)
Questions & Answers about Jemand muss dem Jungen den Dreck aus dem Gesicht waschen.
Why does the sentence use dem Jungen (dative) instead of the genitive des Jungen to say "the boy's"?
This is the possessive dative. In German, when an action affects someone's body parts or clothing, it is common to state the person in the dative case (dem Jungen) rather than using a possessive genitive or a possessive adjective. It literally reads like "wash the dirt out of the face to the boy".
Why is it aus dem Gesicht (out of the face) instead of aus seinem Gesicht (out of his face)?
Because we already established whose face it is using the dative dem Jungen, German drops the possessive word (seinem) and simply uses the definite article (dem). Adding a possessive pronoun here would sound completely redundant to a German speaker.
Wait, is Jungen plural here?
No, it is singular! Der Junge belongs to a group of masculine nouns that follow "n-declension" (weak masculine nouns). These nouns add an -n or -en ending in every case except the nominative singular. Therefore, the dative singular is dem Jungen.
Why does dem Jungen come before den Dreck?
When a German sentence has both a dative noun object and an accusative noun object, the standard word order rule is "dative before accusative". The receiver (dem Jungen) comes before the direct object being acted upon (den Dreck).
Learn Jemand muss dem Jungen den Dreck aus dem Gesicht waschen and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free