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For example: Is it "Meinem Vater schmeckt Pizza sehr" or "Mein Vater schmeckt Pizza sehr"?

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Any part of speech can be put at the start of a sentence (although in the case of verbs, that makes the sentence a question. A verb always comes second in a statement.)

Ich habe das Buch meinem Vater gegeben. I gave the book to my father.

Meinem Vater habe ich das Buch gegeben. To my father I gave the book.

Das Buch habe ich meinem Vater gegeben. The book I gave to my father.

Später habe ich das Buch meinem Vater gegeben. Later I gave the book to my father.

Habe ich das Buch meinem Vater gegeben? Did I give the book to my father?

The "start" position is used for emphasis, and the declensions or "cases" of the various nouns is used to determine their function (nominative for subject, accusative for direct object, dative for indirect object). Verbs and adverbs are self explanatory.

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Yes, it can. Your example is a correct german sentence. Why would you think, it was wrong?

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  • Before exams we often start to forget what we learned but don't know for sure. What would be interesting (to me), what is with his second example sentence? Does it mean some different?
    – peterh
    Apr 22, 2017 at 19:45
  • Lack of recent exposure with the example and teachers actually messing it up made matters worse for me ,So I wanted to confirm. To clarify the second sentence was just an idea that looked like an answer to me. That if we move the dativ to the beginning of the sentence, we should revert it back to its normal form. So, I understand from you that only the first sentence is correct?
    – Mazen.O
    Apr 22, 2017 at 20:04
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    Mein Vater schmeckt Pizza sehr. means your father is very able to taste Pizza. This doesn't make sense, but e.g. Mein Vater schmeckt das Salz sehr. means "My father tastes the salt much (it's too much for his taste)."
    – Janka
    Apr 22, 2017 at 20:38
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    @Janka Das hätte eher ein Kommentar zur Frage sein sollen.
    – Robert
    Apr 22, 2017 at 21:53
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    This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. - From Review
    – user unknown
    Apr 24, 2017 at 22:22

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