"Er stellte mich seiner Schwester vor."
Translation:He introduced me to his sister.
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OK, why is this "he introduced me to his sister" and not "he introduced his sister to me"?
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@djeidot : mich is me (as in 'introduced me' - accusative case), and mir would translate as 'to me' (dative case).
He introduced me to his sister = Er stellte mich seiner Schwester vor. / He introduced his sister to me = Er stellte mir seine Schwester vor. (?)
Yes, that's correct. The verb is 'jdm. jdn. vorstellen'. The one being introduced has to be in accusative, the one he/she is introduced to in dative.
Does the word order matter here? Like would 'Er stellte seiner Schwester mich vor' or 'Er stellte seine Schwester mir vor' work?
Yes, it does matter. Both "Er stellte seiner Schwester mich vor" and "Er stellte seine Schwester mir vor" don't work.
See here: http://is.gd/Lb4PQs
The dative object will always come before the accusative object. If the accusative object is a pronoun, it will always be before the dative object.
Ah I had the same question and knew this, I just mixed up mir and mich. d'oh
It's a bad translation. In this context 'vorstellen' means 'to introduce'. It can also mean 'to imagine'
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I was really wondering. I knew er=he and schwester=sister. Then i clicked on stellte, and duo said it meant laid. Whoa! What is Duo teaching. I was so glad it meant introduced
oh sorry... I meant why is the verb "to present to" not accepted as an equivalent of "to introduce to" (I must confess I did not remember the sentence, only what was noted as a mistake.
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@antoine.gournay : Should be accepted. Even PONS has präsentieren (vorstellen) = to present sth to sb. http://goo.gl/4rbZKS
Just a usage note: although "präsentieren" does work in certain contexts, usually "vorstellen" is the better choice as a translation of "to introduce sb. to sb."
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What is the meaning of 'stellte"? Because in a sentence i have seen "ich stellte die tasse"="i put the cup" now "er stellte mich"="he introduced me"????
I said "he set me up with his sister" because that seemed like the closest translation of "put" in this context- is that the wrong connotation?
Yes -- the separable verb vorstellen means to introduce, not to put or set someone up.
(Others have mentioned to imagine; in that sentence, it is usually reflexive: sich vorstellen, with dative sich.)
he introduced his sister to me is the same as he introduced me to his sister
Eh?
One is "Paul, this is Mary."
The other is "Mary, this is Paul."
He's speaking to different people in each situation.