Die Sekretärin schickt mir die Bestätigung per E‑Mail.

Die can mean different things depending on gender, number, and case.

Here, die Sekretärin is singular feminine nominative, so die means the for a feminine singular noun.

So:

• die Sekretärin = the secretary (female)
• not plural here

German articles change based on the noun’s role in the sentence.

Sekretärin is the female form of Sekretär.

A very common pattern in German is:

• Sekretär = male secretary
• Sekretärin = female secretary

The ending -in often marks a feminine job title or person:

• Lehrer → Lehrerin
• Freund → Freundin
• Arzt → Ärztin

So die Sekretärin specifically refers to a woman.

In a normal German main clause, the conjugated verb usually comes in position 2.

This sentence follows the standard pattern:

• Die Sekretärin = position 1
• schickt = position 2
• mir die Bestätigung per E-Mail = the rest

This is one of the most important German word order rules:
main clause = verb in second position

Schicken is the infinitive form, meaning to send.

In the sentence, the verb has to be conjugated to match the subject:

• ich schicke
• du schickst
• er/sie/es schickt
• wir schicken
• ihr schickt
• sie/Sie schicken

Because die Sekretärin = she, the correct form is schickt.

Because mir is the dative form of ich, and here it is the indirect object.

German often uses:

• accusative for the thing directly affected
• dative for the person receiving something

In this sentence:

• mir = to me / for me → indirect object, so dative
• die Bestätigung = the thing being sent → direct object, so accusative

Compare:

• Er sieht mich. = He sees me. (mich, accusative)
• Er gibt mir das Buch. = He gives me the book. (mir, dative)

So with schicken in this kind of sentence, the receiver is often in the dative.

Here, die Bestätigung is accusative, because it is the direct object: it is the thing being sent.

The tricky part is that for feminine singular nouns, the article is die in both:

• nominative: die
• accusative: die

So the form looks the same.

In this sentence:

• Die Sekretärin = nominative subject
• die Bestätigung = accusative direct object

You can tell the role mainly from word order and meaning.

A useful way to break it down is:

• Die Sekretärin = subject
• schickt = verb
• mir = indirect object (dative)
• die Bestätigung = direct object (accusative)
• per E-Mail = adverbial phrase, showing the method

So the pattern is roughly:

subject + verb + indirect object + direct object + method

This is a very common German sentence pattern.

German word order with objects is flexible, but there are strong preferences.

A very common rule is:

• pronouns usually come before full noun phrases

Here:

• mir = pronoun
• die Bestätigung = full noun phrase

So mir die Bestätigung sounds natural.

You might learn the general tendency as:

• short/light elements, especially pronouns, come earlier
• longer/full noun phrases come later

That is why schickt mir die Bestätigung sounds more natural than schickt die Bestätigung mir.

Per is used to mean by, via, or through a method of communication or transport.

So:

• per E-Mail = by email
• per Post = by post
• per Telefon is less common, but the pattern exists

In these expressions, per often appears without an article. It behaves like a fixed expression in many cases.

So German naturally says:

• per E-Mail
• not usually per der E-Mail

Usually, per E-Mail is the more natural expression for by email.

Mit E-Mail sounds unnatural in most cases.

If you want alternatives, these are common:

• per E-Mail
• per Mail
• per E-Mail schicken
• in einer E-Mail = in an email

So for the method of sending, per E-Mail is the normal choice.

Because they are nouns, and all nouns are capitalized in German.

That’s a major difference from English.

So in this sentence:

• Sekretärin = noun
• Bestätigung = noun
• E-Mail = noun

All of them begin with a capital letter.

You usually learn a noun together with its article:

• die Bestätigung

That tells you it is feminine.

Also, many nouns ending in -ung are feminine:

• die Rechnung
• die Einladung
• die Erklärung
• die Bestätigung

So -ung is a very useful pattern: nouns with this ending are almost always feminine.

Yes. Die Bestätigung comes from the verb bestätigen, which means to confirm.

So:

• bestätigen = to confirm
• die Bestätigung = confirmation

This is another helpful pattern in German: many nouns are related to verbs, and recognizing that can make vocabulary easier to remember.

Almost, but not perfectly.

A very close literal breakdown is:

• Die Sekretärin = the secretary
• schickt = sends
• mir = to me / me
• die Bestätigung = the confirmation
• per E-Mail = by email

So the word-for-word order is roughly:

The secretary sends me the confirmation by email.

In this case, German and English are actually quite similar.

Yes. German allows some movement of sentence elements, especially adverbials.

For example:

• Die Sekretärin schickt mir die Bestätigung per E-Mail.
• Die Sekretärin schickt per E-Mail mir die Bestätigung. → possible, but less natural
• Per E-Mail schickt mir die Sekretärin die Bestätigung. → possible, with emphasis on the method

The most neutral and natural version is the original one.

So yes, it can move, but word order changes the emphasis and sometimes the naturalness.

You would replace mir with the correct dative pronoun.

Some common dative pronouns are:

• mir = to me
• dir = to you (informal singular)
• ihm = to him / to it
• ihr = to her / to them
• uns = to us
• euch = to you (informal plural)
• Ihnen = to you (formal)

So:

• Die Sekretärin schickt ihm die Bestätigung per E-Mail.

The rest of the sentence stays the same.