Die Mitarbeiterin hilft Ausländern.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.