English Translation
She reports the news every night.
Shouldn’t it be “über die Nachrichten”?
According to the English Wiktionary page for berichten, there are 3 possibilities for the item being reported -
to report (especially by the media or authorities) [with accusative or über (+ accusative) or von (+ dative) ‘on/about something’, along with dative ‘to someone’]
In this case, using the accusative for die Nachrichten appears to be the best fit.
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Yes, Nachrichten aren’t the topic but the medium. So I wouldn’t use “über” here.
It’s like in english where you say “tell a story” instead of “tell about a story”, because story is just an umbrella term for the actual content of the story.
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To clarify the listed three options:
The first option is something like the translation for “Can you give me a status report?”
Kannst du mir den Status berichten?
The word “den” signals the accusative. It’s obvious when/because “Status” is a singular noun. With the plural noun “die Nachrichten”, you don’t see the equivalent to “der Status” changing to “den Status”.
To translate the word “about” in “to report about something”, you can choose between “über” (second option) and “von” (third option).
Second option:
Can you tell me about your vacation?
Kannst du mir über deinen Urlaub berichten?
Can you tell me about your pain?
Kannst du mir über deinen Schmerz berichten?
With “über”, you use the accusative.
Alternatively, third option:
Can you tell me about your vacation?
Kannst du mir von deinem Urlaub berichten?
Can you tell me about your pain?
Kannst du mir von deinem Schmerz berichten?
With “von”, you use the dative.
Notice that I used singular nouns in all examples. When you use plural nouns, it’s not obvious.
Kannst du mir über deine Urlaube berichten?
Kannst du mir über deine Schmerzen berichten?
Kannst du mir von deinen Urlauben berichten? (Notice the extra “n” in “Urlauben”.)
Kannst du mir von deinen Schmerzen berichten?
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Thank you very much for that detailed response.
Do I understand correctly then that there is no difference at all between using über and von here when talking “about” something i.e. it’s just personal preference?
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