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In the translation of “I called her yesterday”:

Ich habe gestern sie angerufen.

Ich habe sie gestern angerufen.

Which is the correct position of the accusative (direct) object (in this case: the pronoun), and what is the rule behind this?

And if I were to negate the sentence (“I didn't call her yesterday”): how should I change the structure of the sentence?

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  • While the most plausible translation of the sentence would be the first, you could use the second one to emphasise, that you called a specific person, not anyone.
    – Nils-o-mat
    Commented Nov 13, 2017 at 8:14

2 Answers 2

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The most "natural" translation would be:

Ich habe sie gestern angerufen

or possibly

Gestern habe ich sie angerufen ...

Word order in German is fairly flexible, so there are other possibilities depending on the meaning:

Ich habe gestern sie angerufen
Sie habe ich gestern angerufen
Angerufen habe ich sie gestern

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    "Ich habe gestern sie angerufen" ist gar nicht mal so falsch. Es gibt keine Regel, die das verbietet. Aber es gibt Tendenzen im Deutschen, deine Satzstruktur zu verwenden. So oder so wäre aber eine Erklärung, warum es so sein soll, sehr nett.
    – Em1
    Commented Oct 19, 2017 at 18:50
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    "Ich habe gestern sie angerufen" is possible if there is an emphasis on sie. Otherwise it would sound quite odd. Example usage: "Hast du ihn oder sie angerufen?" "Ich habe gestern sie angerufen".
    – RHa
    Commented Oct 19, 2017 at 19:12
  • @Em1 Eine grammatikalische Erklärung kann ich leider nicht anbieten
    – PiedPiper
    Commented Oct 19, 2017 at 23:00
  • "Angerufen habe ich sie gestern" gibt's auch noch. ^^
    – Em1
    Commented Oct 20, 2017 at 7:08
  • Pronomen stehen normalerweise nahe beim Verb. Deswegen wird das "sie" im Normalfall entweder direkt nach dem Verb platziert ("Ich habe sie...") oder, falls diese Position schon vom Subjekt besetzt ist, nach dem Subjekt ("Gestern habe ich sie...").
    – RHa
    Commented Oct 20, 2017 at 8:18
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One of my German profs gave me this general rule:

Time, manner, place

That has served me well. I believe this is one of those situations where either is grammatically correct, but the latter might be how a native would say it. Therefore I would go for: Gestern habe ich sie angerufen

(B.A in German + 6 years in Germany, but not native)

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    I think "time, manner, place" isn't much of help here. There is only time, no manner and no place. In this case it's more about the 'normal' sentence structure versus moving certain elements into the first position for a certain reason (most likely emphasis, but also possible just breaking the normal word pattern to avoid monotony). Finally, the position of the pronoun in the first sentence is questionable (but not wrong per se).
    – Em1
    Commented Oct 19, 2017 at 18:53

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