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All You Need To Know About German Prepositions
All You Need To Know About German Prepositions
All You Need To Know About German Prepositions
Prepositions
By Julia Lewman / German Grammar / July 24, 2018
German prepositions are a vital part of the German language. In fact, no matter
if you look at the German, English or Spanish language, prepositions are
necessary for holding sentences together. Without prepositions, we wouldn’t be
able to give simple instructions or directions.
You might think that learning prepositions in German might work just like in the
English language: learn the right word, add it to your sentence and… (drum roll,
please) there you have it, a sentence with a preposition!
However, just like with a lot of things in the German language, it’s unfortunately
not that easy.
But there’s no reason for you to worry! With this comprehensive blog post, you’ll
have your German prepositions down in no time—I promise!
Nominative (Nominativ)
Accusative (Akkusativ)
Dative (Dativ)
Genitive (Genitiv)
These cases are very important in German grammar as they dictate the endings
of adjectives and indefinite articles. They can also tell you which personal
pronoun to use.
The Nominative
This case tells us who or what is doing something. The subject might be
performing a certain action or have a certain characteristic. In German, the
easiest way to tell the Nominative from other cases is to ask “Who or what is
doing XYZ?”
Wer lacht? (who is laughing?) → Das Mädchen lacht. (The girl is laughing.)
Was ist bunt? (What is colorful?) → Das Haus ist bunt. (The house is colorful.)
Wer bellt die Frau an? (Who barks at the woman?) → Der Hund bellt die Frau an.
(The dog barks at the woman.)
Every time you see forms of the verbs sein and werden (to be and to become),
you can be sure that you’ll find the nominative here: the nominative case always
follows “sein” and “werden”.
If you want to learn how to distinguish forms of werden (to become), click here to read
a comprehensive guide to the German verb werden and its conjugation!
The Accusative
In the case of the accusative, the person (or animal, or object) you are talking
about is affected by the action.
So whenever the noun in the statement you’re making is directly affected by the
verb, you have to use the accusative.
Sie haben die Kirschen gegessen. (They have eaten the cherries.) ← What have
they eaten?
Sie hat ein Bild gemalt. (She painted a picture.) ← What did she paint?
As you can see in all of these sentences, the noun is being influenced by the verb,
such as the picture which is painted by the woman.
The Dative
This case is all about the indirect object. The indirect object is an object that is
being passively influenced by whatever action is taking place. Need a memory
hook? Think of the dative as the “lazy case”.
In this case, “I” is the subject of the sentence, whereas “the key” is the direct
object.
The verb here is “to give” as well, and the indirect object is “he” who I gave the
keys to.
As you can see, I highlighted the word “who” here. When there’s a dative
involved, you’ll always have to ask yourself “Who to?” or “Who for?”, or also
“Whom?”. These three questions are indicative of the dative case.
The Genitive
Onto the last case! The genitive is generally pretty easy to wrap one’s head
around. The operative word here is “Whose?” So whenever you see a sentence
like:
Die Jacke des Mannes ist schwarz. (The man’s jacket is black.)
You can be sure it’s a genitive! Why? Because you’re probably asking “Whose
jacket is black?”
I highlighted the last two letters of the words “des Mannes”. The special thing
about the genitive is that when it’s applied, the endings of certain nouns (namely
masculine nouns and neuter ones) change.
Examples:
“Das Fell des Hundes ist schwarz.” (The dog’s fur is black.) ← Whose fur is
black?
When a sentence is in the genitive case, the letters –es are added to some words,
especially those that have only one syllable and end in a consonant.
If a word ends in –en, –el or –er, usually only an –s is added. This happens
especially in masculine nouns or those that are neuter.
Examples:
Now that you had a chance to take a quick look at the four cases of the German
language, onto the fun part: German prepositions!
Once you learn the specific vocabulary, you’ll have a clear indication of which
case you should use with each preposition.
When you encounter these German prepositions, you can be sure the nouns and
pronouns following will always be in the accusative. So as long as you
memorize the following, you’ve got your German pronouns in the accusative down
(For once, German can be actually pretty simple).
The good thing about German prepositions in the accusative? Only the article
for masculine nouns (der) changes when used with a preposition in the
accusative. The articles for female and neuter nouns stay the same.
Examples:
Sie arbeitet für ein Unternehmen in Berlin. (She works for a company in Berlin.)
Wir gehen durch den Wald. (We’re walking through the forest.) → This is a good
example showing how the masculine article for “der Wald” changes to “den Wald”
when in the accusative.
Sie liefen an der Straße entlang. (They walked along the road.) → This is a bit of a
special case here—what would German be without them?—since the preposition
“entlang” always follows the sentence’s object. So when you see the word
“entlang”, you’ll immediately know that the sentence’s object should come before
the preposition.
All of the words listed below will give you a hint that whatever noun or pronoun
follows, it’s going to be in the dative case.
Examples:
Sie sitzt mir gegenüber. (She’s sitting opposite to me.) → You can see here that
the word “mich” (me) shifts to its dative form: mir.
Nach dem Unterricht gehen wir in ein Café. (After class we’re going to a café.)
Seit seiner Scheidung lebt er allein. (He lives alone since his divorce.) → Since
this is a preposition in the dative, the word “seine” (a possessive pronoun) shifts
to “seiner”.
Ich habe außer einer Jacke nichts gekauft. (I didn’t buy anything except for a
jacket.)
Ich fahre mit meiner Schwester nach Florenz. (I’m going to Florence with my
sister.)
I like to refer to German prepositions in the genitive as well as the genitive case
itself as the “dying case” since a lot of German native speakers (when speaking
informally or in everyday conversations) use the dative instead. While you’ll easily
be understood, this is technically wrong.
Particularly when writing letters or when speaking in more formal contexts (jobs
interviews and the like), you should use the correct case—meaning the genitive—
for the following prepositions.
Note: While you can informally use the dative when using prepositions like
“während” or “statt”, the prepositions außerhalb, innerhalb, oberhalb and
unterhalb must be used with the genitive. Same or diesseits, jenseits, and
beiderseits!
Examples:
Die Bäckerei ist wegen Urlaubs geschlossen. (The bakery is closed due to
vacation.) → Since the preposition is in the genitive, the word “Urlaub” (vacation)
shifts to its genitive form (“Urlaubs”). A lot of Germans will conveniently ignore
the genitive here and simply say “wegen Urlaub geschlossen”—this, however, is
grammatically wrong.
Ich ging trotz einer Erkältung zur Arbeit. (I went to work despite my cold.)
Es kam innerhalb der Partei zu Spannungen. (There were tensions within the
party.)
As I mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, a lot of Germans use the dative instead
of the genitive. I’ll give you a quick example:
“Während dem Essen” (during the meal) is used by a lot of German native speakers
with the dative. The correct form, however, with the genitive, is “während des
Essens”.
German wouldn’t be German if there wasn’t some sort of special case for
everything. Same goes for German prepositions. You might be letting out a sigh of
frustration right now—but I can assure you, these are pretty easy to keep in mind!
Pronouns and nouns following the words listed below are either going to be
in the dative or in the accusative. But how do you know whether the dative or
the accusative is used?
It is pretty easy: Every time there is motion involved (especially when talking
about a specific location), the preposition is in the accusative.
If there’s no motion involved, or the motion involved has no specific goal or place
it’s going to, or if you’re talking about a location, you’re using the dative.
You can distinguish the two by looking at the interrogative particle. In case of an
accusative, you’re asking “wohin?” (meaning: where to?) when inquiring about
the situation.
Wir gehen in die Oper. (We’re going to the opera.) ← Wohin gehen wir? (Where
(to) are we going?) The movement here is going to the opera.
Lege die Zeitung bitte auf den Tisch. (Please put the newspaper on the table.)
← Wohin legst du die Zeitung? (Where do you put the newspaper?) The
movement here is putting the newspaper on the table.
It’s a little bit different in the case of a two-way preposition involving the dative.
Die Zeitung liegt auf dem Tisch. (The newspaper is on the table.) ← Here the
movement has already taken place. The newspaper is on the table and it’s not
going anywhere (unless you move it).
Wir sind in der Oper. (We are at the opera.) ← The movement has already taken
place. The opera is where the action is taking place now.
You have to remember, though, that these rules of motion and location only apply to
two-way prepositions. Other prepositions (for example the ones that always take the
dative or genitive) remain in their respective cases.
You have officially conquered German prepositions! (High fives all around.) Do a
little celebratory dance, and then head over to Clozemaster where you can test
(and improve!) your knowledge of German prepositions.
Viel Erfolg!
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