Die Spinne kümmerte sich um die Hütte.
means
The spider took care of the cottage.
But why do we need to add sich um? Why not just:
Die Spinne kümmerte die Hütte.
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Sign up to join this communityDie Spinne kümmerte sich um die Hütte.
means
The spider took care of the cottage.
But why do we need to add sich um? Why not just:
Die Spinne kümmerte die Hütte.
Well, in this case it's sich kümmern as kümmern is a reflexive verb AFAIK (and I'm not good at grammar but a German speaker).
And to express care about something/somebody (or more exactly to take care of something/someone), you need to use sich um etwas/jemanden kümmern.
In spoken German you could say:
Wen kümmert's?
or
Wen kümmert es?
(who cares) but this is the only situation that comes to my mind where kümmern is used without the reflexive form.
Some useful links:
Here you find some reflexive verbs in German:
Consider:
Die Spinne kümmerte die Hütte.
Here, "die Spinne" would be in the accusative case, "die Hütte" in the nominative case, and it would mean that the hut troubles (or concerns) the spider. This is not the intended meaning.
Since nominative and accusative have identical forms here, it would also be possible that the roles are reversed and the hut is sad about the spider, but that seems even less likely.