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I started studying German few months ago. I started reading "Der Nussknacker (Niveau Eins)". I found this

Ich bedanke mich

but I can not really understand what does it mean and its construction.

Why nominative + verb + accusative?

Em1
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Blackbelt
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2 Answers2

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It just so happens that the accusative declination of the pronoun ich is also the reflexive pronoun for ich.

The verb which you and many other German-learners perceive to be bedanken is actually sich bedanken, indicating it is reflexive and requires a reflexive pronoun.

"Ich bedanke mich" implies that you are saying "I thank you," even though the sentence doesn't contain an object.

If you wanted to be formal, you could say:

Ich bedanke mich bei dir.

Dustin
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  • I updated my answer to try and give you a better understanding of what I meant. Hope this helps! – Dustin May 27 '13 at 07:40
  • I see. But why it wants the akkusativ and not the dativ? Also why the first and not the second person akkusativ? – Blackbelt May 27 '13 at 07:44
  • You're getting confused between pronouns and the declension of nouns. It doesn't take the accusative. It requires a reflexive pronoun.

    If the sentence were intended to mean "We thank you," it would be "Wir bedanken uns."

    Likewise, if it were intended to mean "You thank me," it would be "Du bedankst dich."

     – Dustin May 27 '13 at 07:46
  • See the following articles on reflexive verbs in German:

    http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa022601a.htm http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa022601b.htm

     – Dustin May 27 '13 at 07:49
  • ok thanks for the Article. I was unware of the reflexive pronouns. Still I can't quite understand why mich and not dich :) – Blackbelt May 27 '13 at 07:55
  • We do the same thing in English. You just have to get used to it and take some time to understand the concepts behind what's being presented.

    When I say we do the same thing in English, we do. Mich, dich, uns, etc., all mean myself, yourself, and ourselves respectively, in addition to being the accusative forms of ich, du, and wir, respectively. :) The goal here is for you to understand it, so do speak-up if you don't!

     – Dustin May 27 '13 at 07:59
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    +1, concise and easy to understand. – Eugene Seidel May 27 '13 at 11:46
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It is always like:

Ich bedanke mich bei Ihnen (someone) für die Hilfe (something)

So you know that the someone (bei) is in Dativ and the something (für) is Akkusativ.

Takkat
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detraveller
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