The ditransitive (or “dative”) alternation is a much-studied phenomenon in contemporary linguistics. The study is a corpus-based analysis of the ditransitive alternation in present-day German with 17 noncomplex and complex verbs, viz. geben, schicken, senden; abgeben, preisgeben, übergeben, vergeben, weitergeben, zurückgeben; einschicken, einsenden, übersenden, zurückschicken, zurücksenden; ausleihen, verleihen and verkaufen. The alternating constructions are the Indirect Object Construction (IOC) and the Prepositional Object Construction (POC). Both alternants contain a trivalent transfer verb in combination with three arguments: an AGENT in the nominative, a THEME in the accusative and a RECIPIENT-like argument. The RECIPIENT-like argument can either be realised as a dative Noun Phrase or as a Prepositional Phrase introduced by an + accusative (or, alternatively, zu + dative with the verbs schicken and senden and their complex counterparts), resulting in IOC or POC, respectively.