A Day in Berlin: Präpositionen

Test yourself in one second: Ich gehe ___ Arzt. Zum, zur, zu? A German preposition does not just link words, it also picks the case of the word after it. Mit always leads to the Dativ, für always to the Akkusativ. Learn a preposition together with its case as one pair and most case mistakes fade away.

Prepositions fall into four groups. Each has its own question, and the question tells you the group.

An ordinary day in Berlin, eight sentences. Prepositions are coloured by group: orange Akkusativ, green Dativ, purple Genitiv, blue Wechsel. Do not analyse, just listen and read, the rules come next.

Look at the last two sentences: auf dem Sofa (where?) and auf den Tisch (where to?). Same preposition, different case. That has its own block.

Akkusativ answers wen? and was? The word FUDGEBOW helps you remember the eight prepositions: each letter starts one of them.

Two small things. entlang usually follows the noun: den Fluss entlang. bis mostly comes without an article, with a day or a place: bis Freitag, bis Berlin. And an everyday phrase with um: Der Supermarkt ist gleich um die Ecke. (The supermarket is just around the corner.) Do not mix up wider (“contrary to”) and wieder (“again”).

Dativ answers wem? The seven core prepositions fit into one line: aus · bei · mit · nach · seit · von · zu. Here they are in a chat between two friends.

Also in the Dativ: ab (ab Montag), außer and gegenüber. With a pronoun gegenüber goes after it: mir gegenüber. Dativ articles: dem for der and das, der for die, den plus -n on the noun in the plural: mit den Kindern.

Nine prepositions change their case: in · an · auf · hinter · neben · über · unter · vor · zwischen. One question decides. Wo? A place, no movement: Dativ. Wohin? A direction, movement: Akkusativ.

A tour of the flat: first where, then where to

The rule from these pairs: when the object is already in place it is the Dativ, when you move it or go there yourself it is the Akkusativ. And a classic trap: Ich arbeite im Büro (wo, Dativ), but Ich gehe ins Büro (wohin, Akkusativ). If the preposition belongs to a verb (warten auf, Angst vor), learn its case together with the verb. Movement inside one place is still wo: Ich laufe im Park. Wohin applies when there is a goal: Ich laufe in den Park.

Wechsel prepositions come with paired verbs. The first describes a state (“is lying”) and goes with the Dativ, the second an action (“I put”) and goes with the Akkusativ. Learn them as pairs and the wo-or-wohin question answers itself.

In real speech the preposition and the article often merge into one word. If you say zu dem Arzt, people understand you, but zum Arzt is what you hear more often. These are the forms you meet every day.

Genitiv answers wessen? These prepositions are more common in writing and news, but wegen, trotz and während are also heard in everyday speech. Remember the four main ones together: während, trotz, wegen, statt, all followed by the Genitiv.

Forms: des for der and das, and the noun gets -s or -es (des Films, des Regens), der for die and for the plural (der Stadt). In speech, especially with wegen, people often use the Dativ instead of the Genitiv: wegen dem Wetter (colloquial, do not write it).

Six typical slips. The wrong version comes first, the right one below it.

When you are unsure about the case, go through four steps. With practice it takes a couple of seconds.

What to read next on the site

You can now pick the case after the most common prepositions and say where something is, where you are going and what you put where. Four things for every day:

1. Learn a preposition with its case: für, durch, ohne — Akkusativ; mit, bei, nach, zu — Dativ; während, trotz, wegen — Genitiv.
2. For in, an, auf and their neighbours ask wo or wohin: a place is Dativ, movement is Akkusativ.
3. In speech merge them: zum, zur, im, am, ins.
4. The pairs liegen and legen, stehen and stellen, sitzen and setzen, hängen: “where” is Dativ, “where to” is Akkusativ.

Training: 30 exercises

To make the cases after prepositions automatic, do the training with 30 exercises: choose the form, build the sentence and type the word, with an explanation after every answer.