Breakdown of Die Chefin gibt dem Team wichtige Informationen.
dem
the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
geben
to give
wichtig
important
die Information
the information
das Team
the team
die Chefin
the boss
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Questions & Answers about Die Chefin gibt dem Team wichtige Informationen.
What does Chefin mean and why is the article die used here?
Chefin is the German word for a female boss or manager. In German every noun has a grammatical gender. Chefin is feminine, so it takes the feminine definite article die in the nominative case (i.e., the subject position).
Why is dem Team in the dative case?
German uses cases to mark the roles of nouns in a sentence. dem Team is in the dative case because it’s the indirect object (the recipient of something). The verb geben (to give) always requires a dative object for the one who receives.
Why is wichtige Informationen in the accusative case, and why does the adjective wichtige end in -e?
wichtige Informationen is the direct object of geben, so it’s in the accusative case. There’s no article before wichtige Informationen, so the adjective follows the strong declension pattern. In plural accusative, strong declension gives the ending -e, hence wichtige.
I notice two objects: dem Team and wichtige Informationen. Is geben a special kind of verb?
Yes. geben is a ditransitive verb, meaning it typically takes two objects:
- A dative object (the recipient),
- An accusative object (the thing given).
Other common ditransitive verbs are zeigen (show), schenken (gift), erzählen (tell).
Why does the dative object come before the accusative object in this sentence?
In standard German word order with two objects, the dative object usually precedes the accusative object when both are full noun phrases. If one of them is a pronoun, the pronoun often comes first. But with two nouns, dem Team (dative) comes before wichtige Informationen (accusative).
Why are all the nouns (Chefin, Team, Informationen) capitalized in German?
In German orthography, every noun—regardless of its position in the sentence—is capitalized. This helps learners and readers quickly spot nouns.
How would you ask “To whom is the boss giving important information?” in German?
You replace “to whom” with the dative question word wem, then invert subject and verb for a question. You get:
Wem gibt die Chefin wichtige Informationen?
How do you replace dem Team with a pronoun?
Since Team is neuter singular, its dative pronoun is ihm. The sentence becomes:
Die Chefin gibt ihm wichtige Informationen.