You might remember that there are about 50 verbs that require you to use the dative in case you add an object to a sentence. Since there’s no way to recognize those by looking at their infinitives, you must learn those verbs by heart. This is an ideal opportunity to make use of a so called mnemo-technique that was created for exactly such a purpose. You need to remember that the following verbs require the dative:

• helfen to help
• danken to thank
• gratulieren to congratulate
• gehen here: to feel
• kalt sein to be cold

Learning something abstract like a dative verb challenges our minds because we constantly seek meaning, structure, and logic. So, we‘ll have to make the abstractness go away. We do so by replacing the dative with something concrete that is easy to imagine. As the word Dativ begins with a "D we" could take any thing or person that also starts with a "D", e.g. dinosaur, dog, dongle, Dracula etc.

Now try to make a mental picture of the following situations. Take your time. Even if it takes you one minute, if the image is well constructed, it will remain in your memory for the rest of your life. That should be worth a minute of your time, right?

Now imagine...

• How Dracula helps a dinosaur by pulling a thorn out of its paw.
• The dinosaur then thanks Dracula with a big hug, smiling.
• You congratulate your dog on its diploma or your dog congratulates you on yours.
• You would like to know how things are going for Dracula and send him a postcard asking „Wie geht es dir?“ > How is it going?
• Dracula is very cold. He chills easily.

Work your way through the following verbs. At your current stage, it suffices to work with the English examples. There is no need to learn all these verbs out of context. As soon as you come across one of these verbs, you will remember the mental image that you made, telling you intuitively to use the dative. Try it.

Download a list of the most common dative verbs here.