Concepts

You in the accusative case

We’ve already encountered the formal and informal yous — sie and du respectively, and today we learned about yet another. This one is used when you is not the word changing the verb (i.e.) when it is used as the object. Consider these 2 sentences

• Do you understand? (you is the object; doesn’t change the verb)
  • verstehst du?
• I understand you (you is the subject; changes the verb)
  • ich verstehe dich

In English, we have 2 different forms of I (I and me) depending on where it is placed in the sentence, but we have only one form of you, which makes this kind of translation slightly tricky.

Verbs

antworten (to answer)

This is the intransitive form of the verb, and is mostly used when answering or replying directly to a person.

beantworten (to answer)

verstehen (to understand)

Not to be confused with Verstappen

warten (to wait)

The expression “to wait for someone” is usually expressed as “to wait on someone”, which means that we’ll use auf and not für. For eg.

• I am waiting for you -> ich warte auf dich

finden (to find)

Practice Sentences

• Will you answer this question? -> würdest du diese Frage beantworten?
• What did he tell you? -> (completed event, so expressed has) what has he told you? -> was hat er dich gesagt?
• You were not answering us -> (completed event, so expressed as) You have not answered us -> du hast uns nicht geantwortet