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Questions & Answers about Er verspricht uns Hilfe.
Why does versprechen become verspricht in this sentence?
Because Er is a third-person-singular subject, so in the present tense versprechen takes the -t ending: ich verspreche, du versprichst, er/sie/es verspricht.
What is the role of uns in Er verspricht uns Hilfe?
Uns is the dative personal pronoun meaning “to us.” With versprechen you always have a recipient in the dative case—i.e. jemandem (someone) gets something promised.
What case is Hilfe, and why is there no article before it?
Hilfe is the direct object (accusative case). It’s used here in a general, uncountable sense, so no article is needed. If you wanted to specify particular help, you could say die Hilfe or seine Hilfe.
Why don’t we say Er verspricht uns eine Hilfe?
Because Hilfe is typically uncountable when talking about “help” in general. Adding eine (“a”) would imply a single, countable instance of help, which sounds awkward unless you mean a concrete item or service.
Could we say Er verspricht uns seine Hilfe instead?
Yes. Adding seine (“his”) makes it explicit that it’s his help he’s promising. It’s grammatically correct and adds emphasis on whose help it is.
Why does the dative pronoun uns come before the noun Hilfe here?
In German, pronoun objects almost always precede noun objects. And when you have both a dative and an accusative object, the dative (here uns) normally comes before the accusative (here Hilfe).
What is the typical object pattern for versprechen?
The verb versprechen usually takes two objects: jemandem (dative) + etwas (accusative). In this example, uns is the dative “to whom,” and Hilfe is the accusative “what.”
How does versprechen differ in meaning from anbieten, as in offering help?
Versprechen means “to promise,” implying a commitment to provide something. Anbieten means “to offer,” suggesting you make something available but haven’t yet guaranteed that it will happen.