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I am learning German language from the DW (I'm not sure if is the best source) and between other things I have seen the words mich like

Du machst mich glücklich and mir like Es geht mir um das.

So my question is where to use the word mir and where to use the word mich and what is the difference between them?

Llazar
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    Possible duplicate of Für mich VS. mir. https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/39629/usage-concerning-mir-mich. https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/27973/german-grammar-why-is-it-mich-used-here-and-not-mir. – PiedPiper Jan 15 '19 at 21:14

2 Answers2

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Use "mir" if there is dative case and "mich" if there is accusative.

As I can see, Albanian language has nearly the same cases as German, thus the situation is not hopeless.

When to use which one, typically there are significant differences between the languages, but not essential. In your case, the problem is that both "mir" and "mich" translates to "mua", i.e. "mich" and "mir" is the same word on your first language.

Also your English knowledge doesn't help you, because it is "me" is the same in both cases.

However, your first language differs in the accusative and dative cases of the masculine third person singular: "atë" would translate to "ihn", and "atij" would translate to "ihm".

Thus, if you don't have a better option, then use "mir" if you would use "atij", talking about a male third person, instead from yourself.

Applying this rule, you only need to learn the differences between Albanian and German, which is already much easier. Exactly where are these differences? No one can list them you, except an Albanian German language teacher (or a German Albanian language teacher, first is much more unlikely).

How big mistake is if you miss: imagine a foreigner using "atij" instead "atë". So it sounds for the native speakers if you use "mich" instead "mir".

peterh
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  • The post assumes that there is a high probability of match of the cases between Albanian and German. In the languages I know, it is so, but my Albanian knowledge is only 2 words now. :-) – peterh Jan 15 '19 at 18:23
  • Very good explanation comparing the Albanian with German and yes there is some similarities but to be honest the German seems a language without regulation just like the Albanian and I don't where and how to start. – Llazar Jan 15 '19 at 18:39
  • @Llazar No, no, these are different cases! Can you think on "mua" as accusative and "mua" dative as different words, just like "atij" and "ate:"? The problem is: we have 8 personal pronouns and 4 cases (or 5 in Albanian), that is 40 combination. Sometimes there are redundancies in it, for example "mua" can be both accusative and dative in Albanian, or "sie" means both "she" and "they" on German. The problem is that these redundancies are on different places in the 8x4 personal pronoun matrices. – peterh Jan 15 '19 at 18:52
  • Thanks @peterh great explanation to tell you the truth I was not expecting such great directions points(comparing two languages) and now I know how to start. – Llazar Jan 15 '19 at 19:04
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The difference is a simple one, but it is difficult to learn to choose the right one: German has four cases, in particular it has two cases which correspond to the objective case in English: the accusative case and the dative case. Both mir and mich are forms of ich: mich is accusative and mir is dative.

Carsten S
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