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Learn Hardcore German: Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern. - The employee helps foreigners.

Hardcore German
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/Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.

Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.

Word

Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.

Meaning

The employee helps foreigners.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore German

Lesson

Digitizing family photographs

Breakdown of Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.

die Mitarbeiterin

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Questions & Answers about Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.

Why does Mitarbeiterin end in -in?

The ending -in marks a feminine person noun in German.

der Mitarbeiter = the male employee / the employee (masculine form)
die Mitarbeiterin = the female employee

So this sentence is specifically talking about a female employee.

What does die mean here?

Here, die is the definite article meaning the.

In this sentence, die Mitarbeiterin means the female employee.

A learner may notice that die can also mean they in other contexts, but here it is clearly the article because it comes directly before a noun.

Why is it hilft and not helfen?

Because the subject is singular: die Mitarbeiterin.

The verb helfen means to help, and in the present tense it changes like this:

ich helfe
du hilfst
er/sie/es hilft
wir helfen
ihr helft
sie/Sie helfen

Since die Mitarbeiterin is a third-person singular subject, the correct form is hilft.

Which word is the subject of the sentence?

The subject is die Mitarbeiterin.

She is the person doing the action of helping, so she is in the nominative case.

The sentence structure is:

Die Mitarbeiterin = subject
hilft = verb
Ausländern = object affected by the verb

Why is Ausländern not in the accusative?

Because helfen is one of the German verbs that takes the dative, not the accusative.

In English, we say to help someone, and English does not show the case difference clearly. In German, though, the person being helped goes in the dative:

jemandem helfen = to help someone

So:

Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.

uses the dative plural form Ausländern.

Why does Ausländern end in -n?

Because it is dative plural.

The base plural is Ausländer. In the dative plural, German often adds -n to the noun if possible.

So:

nominative plural: Ausländer
dative plural: Ausländern

This extra -n is very common in dative plural forms.

Why is there no article before Ausländern?

Because German can leave out the article when speaking about people or things in a general sense.

So Ausländern here means something like foreigners or to foreign people in a general way, not necessarily a specific group already known to the listener.

Compare:

Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.
= The female employee helps foreigners / foreign people in general.
Die Mitarbeiterin hilft den Ausländern.
= The female employee helps the foreigners.
This suggests a specific group.

What is the dictionary form of Ausländern?

The dictionary form is der Ausländer.

Its forms are:

singular: der Ausländer
plural: die Ausländer
dative plural: den Ausländern

In the sentence, the article is omitted, but the noun still shows the dative plural ending:

Ausländern

Why are Mitarbeiterin and Ausländern capitalized?

Because they are nouns, and all nouns are capitalized in German.

That is a basic spelling rule in German:

die Mitarbeiterin
der Ausländer
das Haus
die Stadt

This is different from English, where common nouns are usually not capitalized.

Could the sentence also be Die Mitarbeiterin hilft den Ausländern?

Yes. That is also correct.

The difference is:

hilft Ausländern = helps foreigners in general
hilft den Ausländern = helps the foreigners, a specific known group

So both are grammatical, but they do not sound exactly the same.

Can the word order change?

Yes. German word order is flexible, as long as the finite verb stays in the second position in a main clause.

For example:

Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.
Ausländern hilft die Mitarbeiterin.

Both are grammatical. The second version puts more emphasis on Ausländern.

Even when the order changes, the cases still show who is doing what:

die Mitarbeiterin = nominative subject
Ausländern = dative object

How would this look in the singular?

If you want to say The female employee helps a foreigner, you would say:

Die Mitarbeiterin hilft einem Ausländer.

Why?

einem Ausländer is singular dative
helfen still requires the dative

Compare:

plural: Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.
singular: Die Mitarbeiterin hilft einem Ausländer.

What is the difference between Ausländer and Ausländern?

They are different case forms of the same noun in the plural.

Ausländer = basic plural form
Ausländern = dative plural form

Because helfen requires the dative, the sentence needs Ausländern, not Ausländer.

So Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländer would be incorrect.

Is Ausländer a neutral word?

Grammatically, it is a normal German noun meaning foreigner. But in real-life usage, tone and context matter.

Depending on the situation, Ausländer can sound neutral, official, old-fashioned, or sometimes a bit blunt. In many contexts, speakers may prefer alternatives such as:

ausländische Menschen = foreign people
Menschen aus dem Ausland = people from abroad
internationale Gäste = international guests

So the sentence is grammatically fine, but in real communication the best word may depend on context.

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