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Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein.

Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein.
The dog injures his leg.
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Questions & Answers about Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein.

Why do we use sich in Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein?

sich is a reflexive pronoun. It shows that the subject (the dog) and the object (the one being injured) are the same.

  • Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein.
    → The dog injures himself on the leg.

Without sich, the verb verletzen would normally need some other object:

  • Der Hund verletzt die Katze.
    → The dog injures the cat.

So sich verletzen = to injure oneself. The reflexive pronoun always refers back to the subject.

Could I say Der Hund verletzt das Bein instead?

Grammatically yes, but it changes the meaning and sounds odd without more context.

  • Der Hund verletzt das Bein.
    Literally: The dog injures the leg (whose leg? We don’t know.)
  • It sounds like the dog is injuring some leg, not clearly his own.

If you want to specify it’s his own leg without the reflexive form, you’d say:

  • Der Hund verletzt sein Bein.
    → The dog injures his leg.

However, in practice, German strongly prefers the reflexive construction:

  • Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein.
  • Der Hund verletzt sich das Bein.

These are the natural ways to say that the dog injures his own leg.

What exactly does verletzt mean here?

verletzt is the past participle of verletzen but also the 3rd person singular present tense form:

  • Infinitive: verletzen – to injure
  • 3rd person singular present: er verletzt – he injures

In Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein, verletzt is present tense:

  • Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein.
    → The dog injures himself on the leg.
    (Usually understood as “is injuring / gets injured on the leg”.)

So verletzt here is just the normal present tense form of verletzen.

Is verletzen always reflexive, like sich verletzen?

No. verletzen can be:

  1. Non-reflexive (transitive) – someone injures someone/something else:

    • Der Hund verletzt die Katze. – The dog injures the cat.
    • Der Spieler verletzt seinen Gegner. – The player injures his opponent.

  2. Reflexive – someone injures themselves:

    • Der Hund verletzt sich. – The dog injures himself.
    • Ich verletze mich. – I injure myself.

When talking about accidental injuries to one’s own body, German uses the reflexive form sich verletzen almost all the time.

What does am in am Bein mean exactly?

am is a contraction of:

  • an + dem → am

So literally:

  • am Bein = an dem Bein = at/on the leg

Grammatically, an here takes the dative case (dem Bein), so am Bein is a dative phrase.

Why is it am Bein and not im Bein or auf dem Bein?

Different prepositions describe different kinds of spatial relations:

  • an = at / on (in contact with the surface, at the edge or side of something)
    • am Bein → at/on the leg
  • in = in / inside
    • im Bein would literally mean inside the leg (only in very specific contexts, e.g. im Bein steckt ein Splitter – there’s a splinter in the leg).
  • auf = on (on top of a surface)
    • auf dem Bein would sound like something is lying on top of the leg, not that the leg itself is injured.

For body parts in expressions like sich verletzen, German typically uses:

  • an + dative: sich am Bein verletzen, sich an der Hand verletzen, etc.

So am Bein is the idiomatic and correct choice here.

Why is Bein in the dative case here?

Because of two things:

  1. The verb phrase: sich verletzen an + Dativ

    • The standard pattern is:
      sich (körperlich) verletzen an etwas (Dativ) – to injure oneself on something.
    • Example:
      Er hat sich am Kopf verletzt. – He injured his head.
      Sie verletzt sich an der Hand. – She injures her hand.

  2. The preposition an with location:

    • When an expresses where something happens (static location, not movement), it takes dative.
    • an dem Bein → dative → am Bein

So Bein is in the dative because an (in this meaning) requires the dative case.

Can I move am Bein to another place in the sentence?

Yes. The word order can be flexible:

  • Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein. (neutral, very common)
  • Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein. (same as above)
  • Am Bein verletzt sich der Hund. (emphasis on am Bein)
  • Der Hund verletzt sich schwer am Bein. (adds an adverb)

The most typical and neutral version is the original:

  • Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein.

German tends to keep the reflexive pronoun (sich) fairly close to the verb, so you normally wouldn’t separate verletzt and sich too much.

What is the difference between sich am Bein verletzen and sich das Bein verletzen?

Both are correct and common:

  • Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein.
  • Der Hund verletzt sich das Bein.

Nuance:

  • sich am Bein verletzen
    • Uses an + dative
    • Focus a bit more on where on the body the injury is.
  • sich das Bein verletzen
    • Uses das Bein as a direct object (accusative) and sich as an indirect object (dative).
    • Literally: The dog injures himself the leg – idiomatically: The dog injures his leg.

In everyday speech they are almost interchangeable when talking about body parts. Both are standard.

Why don’t we say Der Hund verletzt sich sein Bein?

Because that would double-mark the ownership in an ungrammatical way.

You have two normal options:

  1. Reflexive + body part with article:

    • Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein.
    • Der Hund verletzt sich das Bein.

  2. Non-reflexive verb + possessive pronoun:

    • Der Hund verletzt sein Bein.

But sich + sein Bein together is not used:

  • ✗ Der Hund verletzt sich sein Bein. (wrong)

In German, with body parts, the reflexive pronoun itself already marks the possession, so you don’t need sein.

How do you conjugate sich verletzen in the present tense?

Here is sich verletzen with all persons:

  • ich verletze mich – I injure myself
  • du verletzt dich – you injure yourself (informal singular)
  • er/sie/es verletzt sich – he/she/it injures himself/herself/itself
  • wir verletzen uns – we injure ourselves
  • ihr verletzt euch – you injure yourselves (informal plural)
  • sie verletzen sich – they injure themselves
  • Sie verletzen sich – you injure yourself/selves (formal)

In your sentence, Der Hund verletzt sich, the form is er verletzt sich.

How would I say “The dog hurt his leg” in the past tense?

Use the Perfekt (present perfect), which is the normal spoken past:

  • Der Hund hat sich am Bein verletzt.
    → The dog hurt his leg. / The dog has injured his leg.

Structure:

  • hat (auxiliary verb, from haben)
  • sich (reflexive pronoun)
  • am Bein (dative phrase)
  • verletzt (past participle at the end)

Word order: hat sich am Bein verletzt is the natural order.

Why is it der Hund and not das Hund?

In German, nouns have grammatical gender. The word Hund is:

  • masculine: der Hund
  • plural: die Hunde

So:

  • der Hund verletzt sich am Bein. – The (male) dog injures himself on the leg.

If you specifically want to say female dog, you use die Hündin:

  • Die Hündin verletzt sich am Bein. – The (female) dog injures herself on the leg.
Does sich always mean “himself” here? What about “herself” or “itself”?

In German, the reflexive pronoun sich is the same for er, sie (she), and es:

  • er verletzt sich – he injures himself
  • sie verletzt sich – she injures herself
  • es verletzt sich – it injures itself

So in Der Hund verletzt sich am Bein, sich means himself (because Hund is grammatically masculine and here clearly refers to a male dog).

For a female dog (die Hündin), you’d still use sich, but translate it as herself.