Breakdown of Die Kritik von meiner Schwester hilft der Schauspielerin.
Questions & Answers about Die Kritik von meiner Schwester hilft der Schauspielerin.
The subject is die Kritik (von meiner Schwester), not der Schauspielerin.
In German, the subject is in the nominative case. Here:
- die Kritik → nominative feminine singular
- der Schauspielerin → dative feminine singular
For a typical feminine noun (like Schauspielerin), the definite articles look like this:
- Nominative: die Schauspielerin
- Accusative: die Schauspielerin
- Dative: der Schauspielerin
- Genitive: der Schauspielerin
Because we see der Schauspielerin, we know it is not the subject; it’s a dative object. The subject must then be die Kritik (von meiner Schwester), which is nominative.
Because the verb helfen (to help) always takes its object in the dative case, not the accusative.
- jemandem helfen = “to help someone” (someone = dative)
Since Schauspielerin is feminine singular, its dative form with the definite article is:
- der Schauspielerin
So:
- Die Kritik … hilft der Schauspielerin.
= The criticism helps the actress (dative).
If you used die Schauspielerin here, it would be nominative/accusative and therefore ungrammatical after hilft.
No, that is wrong in standard German.
helfen never takes an accusative object like die Schauspielerin here. It always needs the dative:
- correct: … hilft der Schauspielerin.
- incorrect: … hilft die Schauspielerin.
Think of it as: “to give help to someone” → “to help to someone” → jemandem helfen.
Because von always takes the dative case.
The possessive mein- for a feminine singular noun looks like this:
- Nominative: meine Schwester
- Accusative: meine Schwester
- Dative: meiner Schwester
- Genitive: meiner Schwester
After von, you must use dative:
- von meiner Schwester = from my sister
So meine (nom/acc) would be wrong here; meiner (dat) is required by the preposition von.
Yes, that is also correct.
Here meiner Schwester is genitive, expressing possession:
- die Kritik meiner Schwester = “my sister’s criticism”
So you have two correct options:
- Die Kritik von meiner Schwester hilft der Schauspielerin.
- Die Kritik meiner Schwester hilft der Schauspielerin.
Differences:
- von + Dativ (von meiner Schwester) is very common in spoken and everyday German.
- Genitive (meiner Schwester) often sounds a bit more formal or written.
Yes, Kritik is grammatically feminine in German, so its nominative singular article is die:
- die Kritik = the criticism
A helpful pattern: many nouns ending in -ik are feminine, for example:
- die Musik
- die Politik
- die Technik
- die Fabrik (spelled with -ik in the ending sound, -ik / -ik pattern)
This is only a rule of thumb and has exceptions, but it often helps to guess the gender correctly.
Yes, that is also grammatically correct:
- Der Schauspielerin hilft die Kritik von meiner Schwester.
In German main clauses, the finite verb (hilft) must be in second position, but the first element can be something other than the subject.
Differences:
Die Kritik von meiner Schwester hilft der Schauspielerin.
→ neutral; slightly emphasizes the criticism as subject.Der Schauspielerin hilft die Kritik von meiner Schwester.
→ puts der Schauspielerin in the first position, often emphasizing the actress (the one being helped).
The meaning in terms of who helps whom doesn’t change; the cases (nominative vs dative) still show the roles.
You can, but the meaning changes slightly.
Die Kritik von meiner Schwester …
→ specific criticism (that we both know about).Kritik von meiner Schwester … (without die)
→ more like “(some) criticism from my sister …”, non-specific or more general.
In many realistic contexts, you probably mean a particular, known criticism, so die Kritik is more natural.
For a clearly indefinite meaning, you might also say:
- Etwas Kritik von meiner Schwester hilft der Schauspielerin.
= Some criticism from my sister helps the actress.
Because in German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of where they appear in the sentence.
In this sentence:
- Kritik – noun
- Schwester – noun
- Schauspielerin – noun
Therefore all three start with a capital letter. Articles, adjectives, and verbs are not capitalized in the middle of a sentence.
The German Präsens (present tense) usually covers both English present forms:
- Die Kritik … hilft der Schauspielerin.
- can mean:
- “The criticism … helps the actress.” (simple present)
- “The criticism … is helping the actress.” (present progressive)
- can mean:
Context decides which English form is more natural. German does not have a separate continuous tense for this.
Schauspielerin is the feminine form of “actor” (Schauspieler = male actor).
- Singular:
- Nominative: die Schauspielerin
- Dative: der Schauspielerin
- Plural:
- Nominative: die Schauspielerinnen
- Dative: den Schauspielerinnen
In the sentence, we have one actress being helped, so we use dative singular:
- der Schauspielerin
If we were talking about several actresses, it would be:
- Die Kritik von meiner Schwester hilft den Schauspielerinnen.
You would use the dative pronoun ihr (to her):
- Die Kritik von meiner Schwester hilft ihr.
Pronoun forms for sie (she) in the singular:
- Nominative: sie (she)
- Accusative: sie (her, direct object)
- Dative: ihr (to her)
Since helfen requires the dative, ihr is the correct pronoun here, just as der Schauspielerin is the dative noun phrase.