With or without "für"?

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Jake88
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With or without "für"?

Postby Jake88 » 2017-04-11, 22:21

Take the following sentence:
Fast die Hälfte des Gartens war einer Garage geopfert worden.
I can't help thinking that there needs to be a "für" inserted in there between the "war" and the "einer", because without it it seems to me that the translation would be, "Nearly half the garden had been sacrificed a garage". Which doesn't make sense without a "for".
So my question is : should the sentence written in German, above, contain the word, "für"?

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Babbsagg
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Re: With or without "für"?

Postby Babbsagg » 2017-04-11, 22:46

No, the sentence is correct. "einer Garage" is dative case, which automatically means "for the garage" in this case. I think English needs "for" to clarify because in English there's no visible/audible distinction between nominative, accusative and dative case.

In colloquial speech "für eine Garage" may be used here, but strictly correct is "einer Garage".
Thank you for correcting mistakes!


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