3

The verb "antworten" takes the dative as in "ich antworte dem Mann". But when I look it up in my Langenscheidt "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" dictionary it is shown as [Vt]. To make it even more confusing, the first example in the dictionary uses (jemandem) and [Vi] as below.

ant-wor-ten; antwortete, hat geanwortet; [Vt]

  1. (jemandem) etwas (auf etwas (akk)) antworten jemandem etwas als Antort auf eine Frage, Bitte od. einen Brief sagen/schreiben <> fragen: Was hast du ihm geanwortet?; [Vi]

What am I not understanding here?

Steve
  • 1,426
  • 9
  • 12

2 Answers2

6

The dictionary lists different uses of antworten. One of them is transitive in the sense that it takes an accusative object that can become the subject under passivisation (marked in bold in the following examples). The accusative object indicates the content of the reply. A dative object, specifying who receives the reply, is optional.

Was hast du (ihm) geantwortet? (accusative object, active)

Was wurde (ihm) geantwortet? (subject, passive)

Es soll nichts geantwortet werden. (translation of Latin nihil esse respondendum)

Er hat wieder nur einen Satz geantwortet.

For further examples of transitive antworten, see the entry for antworten in "Elektronisches Valenzwörterbuch deutscher Verben".

But there are also intransitive uses, where no accusative object is possible. These should be listed under [Vi] in the dictionary, where the entry is cut off in the question. In the following example, antworten takes the meaning of "react" and occurs solely with a prepositional object headed by mit; there are no nominal (dative or accusative) objects.

Er antwortete mit einem Nicken.

The prototypical intransitive example with only a dative object (specifying who receives the reply, marked in bold) would be the following. As this is the most common usage, it's the one that gets drilled into learners' heads ("antworten takes the dative!").

Hast du ihm schon geantwortet?

David Vogt
  • 26,425
  • 2
  • 42
  • 91
  • Surely your example 'Er antwortete mit einem Nicken.' is only dative because of the use of 'mit'. And in your example 'Was hast du (ihm) geantwortet? (accusative object, active)', 'ihm' is dative and not accusative. – Steve Apr 17 '22 at 10:19
  • You seem to be making some assumption that isn't true. The definition of transitivity given at the beginning of the answer does not exclude the presence of a dative or prepositional object; it merely demands that an accusative object (that can be passivised) is present. – David Vogt Apr 17 '22 at 10:30
  • Oh, and antworten does not always take a dative object, as the examples illustrate (if that was the assumption). – David Vogt Apr 17 '22 at 10:56
  • I do not understand your explanations, but that is most probably my fault and not yours. I do not understand why, in the Langenscheidt "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" dictionary, the verb is listed as [Vt] initially but then as [Vi] in the example. It would be helpful if you could give an example of "antworten" being used transitively with an accusative object. In your example above 'ihm' is actually dative and not accusitive. – Steve Apr 17 '22 at 11:51
  • The verb has both transitive and intransitive uses. Examples for transitive uses are the first four in this answer (was, nichts, nur einen Satz are accusative, or correspond to the accusative of an active sentence). Also, the example you copied from the dictionary is transitive (jemandem etwas* auf etwas antworten*). The intransitive uses are missing from the quote, they should follow after [Vi] in your dictionary. – David Vogt Apr 17 '22 at 13:25
  • 1
    I consider these sentence to be wrong: »Es soll nichts geantwortet werden.« Correct: »Es soll nicht* geantwortet werden.«* or »Es soll nichts gesagt* werden.«* Also wrong: »Er hat wieder nur einen Satz geantwortet.« correct: »Er hat wieder nur mit* einen Satz geantwortet.«* or Er hat wieder nur einen Satz gesagt.** Correct are only the Was-questions, but they do not ask for an accusative object but for a subjunctive relative clause (wrong answer: »Ich habe den Onkel* geantwortet.«* correct: »Ich habe geantwortet, dass ich sein Onkel bin.«**) – Hubert Schölnast Apr 17 '22 at 16:10
  • 4
    @HubertSchölnast If you are rejecting both the authority of the dictionary and the evidence of usage, admitting in their place your judgement and your judgement alone, what more can I say? – David Vogt Apr 17 '22 at 16:18
  • 1
    @HubertSchölnast: As evidence for the usage, see Mt 27,12 in the revised 2017 Luther translation of the Bible. – Tilman Schmidt Apr 17 '22 at 18:49
1

I explained this already in an answer to another, very similar (but not equal) question. Please consult this answer if you are interested in more details.

Here is a short version:

The verb antworten is an intransitive verb. This means it can NOT take an accusative object:

  • wrong:

    Ich antworte den Mann.
    Ich antworte die Frage.
    Ich antworte den Brief.

This verb feels well without any object

  • correct:

    Ich antworte.
    I answer.

And it feels well with a prepositional object that tells what is answered:

  • correct:

    Ich antworte auf die Frage.
    I answer the question.

Besides that, independent from the particular verb, you can add a free dative object to many German sentences. These objects are called »free« because they are optional. When you delete a free dative object from a correct German sentence you always will get another correct sentence (with a different meaning, but still correct).

In »Ich antworte dem Mann« the part »dem Mann« is such a free dative:

  • correct (with free dative):

    Ich antworte dem Mann.
    I answer to the man.

  • also correct (without free dative):

    Ich antworte.
    I answer.

As said before: More details are available in an answer to another question.

Hubert Schölnast
  • 122,799
  • 17
  • 211
  • 403
  • Thank you for this explanation. I still unclear is why "Langenscheidts Großwörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache" lists "antworten" as [Vt] (tranitives Verb) if it is actually an intransitive Verb [Vi]. By the way this dictionary also includes [Vt/i] for "transitives Verb, das auch ohne Akkusativesobjekt verwendet werden kann". – Steve Apr 17 '22 at 12:35
  • To me it’s clear: They made an error. The entry in the dictionary is wrong. „antworten“ is intransitive. – Hubert Schölnast Apr 17 '22 at 14:10
  • 1
    It's difficult to reconcile this answer with David Vogt's. I'm inclined toward your answer being correct for "proper" German, while the examples given in the other answer are explainable as informal or colloquial, for example casually substituting antworten for beantworten. The English "answer" is much more flexible; you can answer a question, answer a person, or answer a phone. That may be the source of some of the confusion. – RDBury Apr 17 '22 at 15:18
  • @RDBury: I disagree with David's answer (see my comment to his answer). Properties of English verbs are irrelevant when we talk about German verbs. – Hubert Schölnast Apr 17 '22 at 16:14
  • @Hubert Schölnast: I only mentioned the English because in can be confusing for learners when it differs from German, especially when the words are cognates. – RDBury Apr 17 '22 at 21:24