German Prepositions

Introduction

Prepositions are words that connect nouns and pronouns to other words in a sentence. A preposition indicates a location in space or time, or a logical relationship of a noun to the rest of the sentence.

Prepositions in German influence the case of the following noun or pronoun. Some prepositions require the accusative case, some require the dative case, some the genitive case, and some either the accusative or dative case depending whether or not motion is implied. A noun in the accusative case is the direct object of a sentence. A noun in the dative case is the indirect object in a sentence.

In English the definite article the and the indefinite article a have lost their direct and indirect object forms, but pronouns still have a subject and an object form. For example, 'he' and 'him'. In German, pronouns, the definite article, the indefinite article, and even adjectives have different forms depending on which case they're in.

Don't worry if this sounds too confusing. As you practice reading and speaking German, it'll eventually come naturally, and even if you make a lot of mistakes, you'll still be understood.

Prepositions with the accusative case

The accusative case refers to the direct object form of a noun or pronoun. The following table shows the prepositions that require the accusative case of nouns and pronouns.

German	English	Examples
bis	until, to	bis 10 zählen (count to 10)
durch	through, by	durch den Fluss (through the river)
entlang	along	entlang den Fluss (along the river) Ich fuhr die Strasse entlang. (I drive along the street.)
für	for	Es ist für das Buch. (It's for the book.) Es ist für dich. (It's for you.)
gegen	against	gegen die Mauer (against the wall)
ohne	without	Sie sind ohne mich gegangen. (They went without me.)
um	around, about, by, at (with time expressions)	um 4 Uhr (at 4 o'clock)

Prepositions with the dative case

The dative case refers to the indirect object form of a noun or pronoun. The following table shows the prepositions that require the dative case of nouns and pronouns.

German	English	Examples
aus	out, out of	Ich komme aus Berlin. (I come from Berlin) aus der Flasche (out of the bottle)
außer	except for, apart from	Sie hatten alles, außer den Anweisungen. (They had everything except for the instructions.)
bei	at, near, by	bei dem is usually shortened to beim. bei der Bäckerei (at the bakery) bei uns (at our house)
mit	with	Er ging mit seinen Freunden spazieren. (He went walking with his friends.) mit dem Löffel (with the spoon)
nach	after, to	after dinner (nach dem Essen) When used before a city or country it means "to". nach Berlin gehen (to go to Berlin)
seit	since, for	seit 12 jahren (for 12 years) Er ist seit einer Woche hier. (He's been here for a week.)
von	from, of, by	Note: von dem is usually shortened to vom. vom Frankfurt (from Frankfurt) Ich weiß nichts von ihm. (I don't know anything about him.)
zu	to, at	Note: Usually zu dem is shortened to zum and zu der is shortened to zur. zu Hause (at home) zum Strand gehen (to go to the beach) zu meiner Überraschung (to my surprise) zum Bahnhof (to the train station)

Prepositions with either the accusative or dative case

These prepositions are followed by the accusative case when movement towards a different place is involved. They are followed by the dative case when position is described instead of movement.

German	English	Examples
an	on, at, to	Note: Usually an dem is shortened to am. an der Spitze (at the top) am Freitag (on Friday) am Fluss (at the river)
auf	on, upon, to, in	auf dem Tisch (on the table) auf den Markt gehen (go to the market)
hinter	behind	hinter dem Haus (behind the house)
in	in, into	Note: in dem is usually shortened to im and in das is usually shortened to ins. in der Schule (at school) Er ging in das Zimmer. (He went into the room.) Er ist in dem Zimmer. (he is in the room.)
neben	next to, beside	neben der Wand (next to the wall)
über	over, about, above, across, beyond	über den Fluss (over the river)
unter	under, among	unter den Baum (under the tree)
vor	in front of	vor dem Spiegel (in front of the mirror)
zwischen	between	zwischen den Bäumen (between the trees)

Prepositions with the genitive case

There are a few prepositions that require the genitive case, though in spoken German the dative case is often used instead.

German	English	Examples
jenseits	on the other side of, beyond	jenseits der Grenze (on the other side of the border)
statt	instead of	statt hier (instead of here)
trotz	in spite of	Wir haben den Tag trotz des Regens genossen. (We enjoyed the day in spite of the rain.)
wegen	because of	wegen mir - because of me
während	during	Es geschah während unseres Urlaubs. (It happened during our vacation.)