I don't understand why you should say 'man geht ins Kino' instead of 'man geht in dem Kino'.

When using articles in German one has to think about whether the sentence needs to be accusative or dative. In the example above the first version is in the accusative and the second is in the dative. It is important to understand that the sentence is to do with movement so therefore the accusative should be used rather than the dative which is used when one is stationary. Another important thing to note is that 'ins' is short for 'in das' but when these two words are next to each other they are compressed together to make 'ins'.Had the sentence been 'man ist I'm Kino' then im is correct because the person is stationary and so the dative is used. Again, 'Im' is the condensed version of 'in dem'.

SD
Answered by Sophie D. German tutor

2362 Views

See similar German GCSE tutors

Related German GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Can you explain the use of 'der', 'die', 'das' and 'ein', 'eine'?


What is a "Nebensatz"?


How do you say the sentence 'She goes on holiday to France' in the present, future and perfect tenses?


When is the verb sent to the end of the sentence?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning