"How is his wife doing?"

Translation: Wie geht es seiner Frau?

[Sylvie_Stephanie]

I think that in the language learning process it's good to find common and easy phrases, sentences or questions which will act as, I would say, the "source" ones.

For example, in the case of "wie geht es..." I have always in my mind "wie geht es dir?" to see that dative was used. I will always remember this question so if I was ever confused which case I should use, I would bring this question to my mind and analyse it.

I hope that makes sense! :)

[DerekSimms]

That more than makes sense; I imagine that will help quite a few people - good idea. I've done that type of thing myself a little, but shall try to adopt it more frequently.

[Larry820277]

Good comment. I have phrases that serve the same function.

[Jackintheory]

Sehr hilfreich!

[Andrew-Stelaarew]

That always helped me remember the case, too! (Wie geht es dir?) And similar "hacks".

Quite useful!

[Ray959792]

Excellent suggestion!

[jpme001]

why not seinem ?

[quis_lib_duo]

eine / die Frau = feminine noun, in nominative case
einer / der Frau = in dative case

Possessive article follow the declination pattern of the indefinite article (here: eine, einer),
hence seiner in dative case.

[brasil2004]

"seinem" ist männlich, ganz korrekt Dativ Singular Maskulinum des Possessivpronomens "sein".
"seiner" ist weiblich, ganz korrekt Genitiv Singular Femininum des Possessivpronomens "sein".

[catblue44]

Warum seiner? Ist geht Akkusativ?

[mizinamo]

wie geht es ...? uses the dative case for the "..." bit.

[NicolaMcLaren]

i am confused how to identify the cases when the sentence is a question. Why is the dative case used here?

[doublelingot]

as mizinamo has already stated: 'wie geht es' uses the dative case

[MikeNesbitt1462]

Is "wir gehts seiner frau" wrong?

[almighty.dog]

Should be "wie geht's"

[mOehlschlager]

Why not "Wie geht's seinem Weib?"

[almighty.dog]

I would really not recommend calling a woman a 'Weib'!

'Frau' is the normal word for wife; 'Ehefrau' if you need to make it very clear that the couple are legally married.

[Nicolee543664]

In school (quite some time ago), I was taught: wie geht es mit dir? When I typed "Wie geht es mit seiner Frau" it was marked as wrong?? I realise that you can say it without the "mit" but is it wrong to add it?

[sean.cunnion]

Lol. Absent-mindedly chose "seinem" instead of "seiner" and it just told me I made a typo while marking it correct. I didn't even type it, haha

[KarolJasis3]

why not: wie ist seiner Frau? For example it functions: Ist dir schelcht? therefore can I ask: ist dir gut? I am so confused with Duo...

[RobertHJMa]

'How is his wife' . . . . ?

[dinghao42]

It's not ' seinem ' ( masculine ) Frau, because Frau is feminine and in the dative ( indirect object case ) it's ' seiner ' Frau.

[dinghao42]

It's not seinem Frau , because the dative for the genders are: sein= seinem, seine = seiner, sein = seinme. Such as, der= dem, die = der, das = dem, die ( plural ) = den. and on and on... Yes, the phrase, ' wie geht es ' triggers the dative.