5

I saw

I'm happy to have you as my friend.

being translated as

Ich freue mich, Sie als meinen Freund zu haben.

But I thought since meinen comes after the preposition als, it should be meinem (i.e. masculine dative form). I think the direct object of haben is Sie, and als meinen Freund being just an adverbial phrase. Am I wrong?

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  • 2
    Similar: german.stackexchange.com/questions/35442/… – Carsten S Apr 12 '17 at 1:35
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    Better: Ich freue mich, Sie zum Freund zu haben. – Janka Apr 12 '17 at 1:36
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    If you are friends, the relationship should be so close that you don't have to adress him/her the polite way. You should not need "Sie" anymore but can use: "Ich freue mich, dich zum Freund zu haben." – M. Haverbier Apr 12 '17 at 7:17
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    Good news, you can drop "meinen" and the problem just disappears. :) (And there's no need for using "zum"; but of course it's correct, too.) – Em1 Apr 12 '17 at 14:57
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    @M.Schwarzer-Haverbier - Sometimes one has as a friend an older person whom we must address with Sie. – aparente001 Apr 13 '17 at 3:55
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You are wrong. The preposistion als demands accusative case in this case, since "Sie" is accusative as well. So

Ich freue mich, Sie als meinen Freund zu haben.

is correct and

*Ich freue mich, Sie als meinem Freund zu haben.

would be wrong.

Though the sentence is correct in respect to grammar, it is stylistically flawed, as others alread stated in the comments. In most cases you would not call a friend "Sie", but "Du", so

Ich freue mich, Dich als meinen Freund zu haben.

woul be more appropriate.

Other variants sound more natural, for instance

Ich freue mich, dich zum Freund zu haben.

Ich freue mich, dass du mein Freund bist.

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  • 3
    Even more natural: Ich bin froh, dass du mein Freund bist*. – Takkat Apr 13 '17 at 11:47
  • It is not a stylistic flaw to be old-fashioned. – Carsten S Apr 13 '17 at 14:26
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    Thank you for the kind explanation. Deutsch sounds cool! :) – Chan Kim Apr 25 '17 at 5:29
1

You call your fiends "Sie"?

In any case, the "meinen" seems superfluous (but correct, as opposed to "meinem", which would be wrong; "als" is not being used for comparison here).

"Ich freue mich, Dich als Freund zu haben". But, as others have commented, ""Ich freue mich, Dich zum Freund zu haben" sound sbetter.

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  • 1
    Das beantwortet so manche Frage, nur nicht die gestellte. – user unknown Oct 14 '17 at 15:32

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