If you're studying German, you're learning about the accusative and dative cases. You've likely looked at many sentences with a direct and indirect object that look similar to this one:

Also: Ich schenke ihm ein Ticket fürs Theater.

So, I give him a ticket to the theater.

Caption 15, Nicos Weg: Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

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In the sentence above, the ticket is the direct object and the pronoun "him" is the indirect object in the dative case, which is why it is ihm and not ihn. Generally in German, the direct object is associated with the accusative case. Here's a classic example, with the accusative personal pronoun dich as the direct object:

Weil ich dich liebe, noch immer und mehr.

Because I love you, still and more.

Caption 9, Marius Müller-Westernhagen Weil Ich Dich Liebe

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However, there are a number of common verbs that normally take an object in the dative case, even when there is no object with the accusative case in the sentence. You may already be familiar with this sort of structure from these common phrases:

Wir lassen jetzt die Sabine unser Gericht probieren und hoffen, dass es ihr schmeckt.

We'll now let Sabine taste our dish and hope that she likes it.

Captions 74-75, Bundesländer und ihre Rezepte Rheinland-Pfalz

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Ich habe den ersten Teil schon gesehen und der hat mir sehr gut gefallen.

I saw the first part already and I liked it a lot.

Caption 43, Diane erklärt: Fragewörter

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Das braune Portemonnaie gehört dir, oder?

The brown wallet belongs to you, right?

Caption 18, Nicos Weg: Meine Familie

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Here are some other verbs that follow this pattern, each with a dative personal pronoun:

Du kannst mir vertrauen. Ich will dir helfen.

You can trust me. I want to help you.

Caption 7, Die Pfefferkörner: Cybermobbing

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Und ich hätte wirklich stundenlang dir zuhören können.

And I really could have listened to you for hours.

Caption 42, The Voice of German: Isabel Nolte singt „Als ich fortging“

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Lisa, ich gratuliere dir.

Lisa, I congratulate you.

Caption 7, Nicos Weg: Das ist mir wichtig!

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Bleib bei mir, verzeih mir.

Stay with me, forgive me.

Caption 16, Clueso: Weil ich dich liebe

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Further Learning
Try to create sentences with other common verbs that follow this pattern: danken, dienen, einfallen, fehlen, folgen, gelingen, passieren, schwer fallen, wehtun, and widersprechen. You can find an extensive list on this website and will also find examples with these verbs on Yabla German.

The adverbs ansonsten and sonst in German are most often found in contexts where they can be translated as "else" or "otherwise." You will find that they are generally quite interchangeable, though sonst has a wider range of applications and is used more often in casual conversation.

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Ich kann zwar ein wenig Eislaufen,

I can ice-skate a little bit,

aber ansonsten bin ich auch da eher Zuschauer

but otherwise I'm also more likely the viewer

vorm Fernseher ...

in front of the television...

Caption 46, Deutsche Sporthilfe - Ball des Sports

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Ansonsten finde ich Schauspielerei wahnsinnig interessant.

Otherwise, I find acting incredibly interesting.

Caption 56, Bürger Lars Dietrich - Schlecht Englisch kann ich gut

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Hier werden sie Tieren begegnen,

Here they will encounter animals

die sonst nirgendwo in der Deutschen Bucht leben.

that live nowhere else in the German Bight.

Caption 20, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen

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Brauchst du sonst noch irgendwas? Duschgel oder so?

Do you need anything else? Shower gel or something?

Caption 33, Die Wohngemeinschaft - Besuch

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Und sonst so? Was geht heute Abend?

And otherwise? What's going on tonight?

Caption 22, AnnenMayKantereit - Es geht mir gut

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The last sentence is an example in which ansonsten would sound quite odd due to the colloquial nature of the sentence. 

More importantly, you don't want to confuse ansonsten and sonst with the adjective umsonst, which can mean "for free," "for nothing," or "without reason," depending on the context. Take a look: 

Dass Sie nicht denken, dass in Berlin dann alles umsonst ist.

So that you don't think that in Berlin then everything is free.

Caption 41, Jonathan Johnson - Nahöstliches Essen in Berlin

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Der Freizeitpark heißt nicht umsonst Europa-Park.

The theme park is not called Europa-Park without reason.

Caption 19, Deutsche Welle - Hin und weg - Best of Europa-Park!

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Du bist für mich geboren, ich lebe nicht umsonst

You were born for me, I'm not living for nothing

Caption 4, Marius Müller-Westernhagen - Weil Ich Dich Liebe

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Further Learning
Along with umsonst, you can learn about other adjectives that are used to describe how expensive or cheap something is in this previous newsletter. There are many more examples of ansonsten and sonst used in sentences on Yabla German — just do a search on the homepage!