In this post you will valuable information and exercises about prepositions in German language.
Prepositions in German (as in every language) are very important, maybe even more so in German due to separable verbs and the need to change the case for certain prepositions.
In German language there are three groups of prepositions. Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive and those that like to be greedy and use both Dative and Accusative depending on the context.
Check below table about which prepositions being used with which cases.
| Accusative | Dative | Accusative / Dative | Genitive |
| bis | aus | an | statt |
| entlang | außer | auf | außerhalb |
| durch | bei | in | innerhalb |
| ohne | mit | vor | trotz |
| gegen | nach | hinter | während |
| wider | zeit | über | wegen |
| um | von | unter | |
| für | zu | neben | |
| gegenüber | zwischen |
1) The Nominative Case
The nominative case, or Wer-Fall, tells us who or what is acting. The subject of the sentence is nominative. Always use the nominative case following forms of werden (to become) and sein (to be).
Here are some examples:
- Wer kocht?
(Who (subject) is cooking?)
- Der Mann kocht.
(The man (subject) is cooking.)
- Was ist einfach?
(What is easy?)
- Die Sprache ist einfach.
(The language (subject) is easy.)
The subject, or nominative case is typically the easist part of a sentence to identify.
Next, you want to identify the direct object.
2) The Accusative Case
The accusative case, or Wem-Fall, tells us who or what is affected by the action performed by the subject. Accusative nouns and pronouns are typically direct objects in a sentence.
Examples:
-Er kocht Suppe. (What is cooking?)
(He (subject) is cooking soup (direct object))
- Sie bestellt einen Salat. (What did she order?)
(She (subject) is ordering a salad (direct object))
In the acccusative case, the direct objects are being influenced by the subject or receiving the action performed.
Any nouns following the prepositions below will take the accusative case automatically.
- für / for
- um / at (time), around
- durch / through, across
- ohne / without
- gegen / around (time), against, toward
- bis / until, up, to, by
- entlang / along
- wider / against
Masculine words use the den, einen or ihn form while feminine and neuter nouns stay the same.
Check out these examples:
- Er kocht für die Frau.
(He (subject) is cooking for (accusative preposition) the woman (direct object).)
- Sie spielen ohne ihn.
(They (subject) are playing without (accusative preposition) him (direct object).)
- Wir laufen um das Haus.
(We (subject) are walking around (accusative preposition) the house (direct subject).)
3) The Dative Case
The Dative, or Wem-Fall case tells us more about the indirect object. The indirect object is a noun or pronoun that is passively influenced by an action. This case answers the questions, "whom?".
Examples:
- Er gibt der Frau einen Brief: To whom did he give the letter?
(He (subject) is giving the woman (indirect object) a letter (direct object).)
- Sie kocht mir eine Suppe. To whom is she cooking the soup?
(She (subject) is cooking soup (direct object) for me (indirect object).)
- Ich gebe dem Hund sein Essen. To whom are you giving to food?
(I (subject) am giving the dog (indirect object) his food (direct object).)
Just as with accusative case, some prepositions only take the dative case.
- aus / from, out, of
- außer / apart from, except for
- bei / by, at, in, near
- mit / with
- nach / after, to
- seit / since, for
- von / from, of
- zu / to
- gegenüber / across from, opposite
Masculine and neutral words change to:
- der --> dem
- das --> dem
- ein --> einem
- er --> ihm
- es --> ihm
- kein --> keinem
Feminine words change to:
- die --> der
- eine --> einer
- keine --> keiner
- sie --> ihr
The plural for (die) is changing to den:
Examples:
- Wir treffen uns nach dem Essen.
(We are meeting after the meal.)
- Ich komme aus den USA.
(I'm from the USA.)
- Er ist mit seiner Mutter.
(He is with his mother.)
- Sie wohnt hier seit zehn Jahren.
(She's lived here for ten years.)
4) The Genitive Case
The genitive case describes possession or ownership. You won't hear the genitive case much in spoken language. Instead, German speakers use the dative case and "von".
But you will come across (and have to use!) genitive prepositions in written and formal language.
- anstatt / instead of
- außerhalb / outside of
- biderseits / on both sides
- diesseits / on this side
- innerhalb / inside of
- jenseits / on the other side
- oberhalb / above
- trotz / despite
- unterhalb / below
- während / during
- wegen / because of
In spoken language, it is common to use the dative case with anstatt and wegen. But you should always use the genitive form when writing.
Examples:
- Wir sind während des Urlaubs schnorcheln gegangen.
(We went snorkeling during the vacation.)
- Die Straße ist wegen des Umbaus geschlossen.
(The street is closed because of the construction.)
- Ich wohne außerhalb der Stadt.
(I live outside of the city.)
5) Dual Prepositions (Accusative + Dative / Wechselpräpositionen)
Up until this point, the rules were straightforward.
But an exception to these rules is where most people get confused. Dual or two-way prepositions can take etiher the accusative or dative case.
- an / at, on, by
- auf / on, onto
- hinter / behind
- neben / next to, beside
- in / in, into, to
- über / over, above, across
- vor / before
- zwischen / between
So how do we know when to use accusative or dative with these prepositions?
One rule will help you deternine which case to use:
- Use accusative when motion is involved. The accusative case asks the question "where to?".
- Use dative when there is no motion involved. The dative case asks the question "where?".
Check below examples for more explanation:
- Wir gehen in das Restaurant.
(We are going to the restaurant. (accusative).)
- Wir sind in dem Restaurant.
(We are in the restaurant. (dative).)
- Lege die Karte auf den Tisch.
(Lay the map on the table. (accusative).)
- Die Karte liegt auf dem Tisch.
(The map is lying on the table. (dative).)
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