German Prepositions

From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes

What is a preposition? When do you use them? What are the basic rules associated with them? It is important to be able to answer these questions if you wish to have a thorough grasp of written and spoken German. A preposition is a word that goes before a noun or a pronoun and provides you with additional information about the noun such as information about time, manner and place.

Time: 'seit letzter Woche' – since last week
Manner: 'ohne Milch' – without milk
Place: 'zwischen Ranelagh und Rathmines' – between Ranelagh and Rathmines

Rules associated with using prepositions

The main rule to remember about using prepositions is that different prepositions govern different cases. That is to say that after some prepositions the noun will be in the accusative case, after others it will be in the dative case and after still others it will be in the genitive case.

Prepositions that always take the Accusative case

'für' for
'entlang' along
'um' at, for, round
'bis' as far as, till, to
'durch' through, by
'ohne' without
'gegen' against, towards
'wider' against

Prepositions that always take the Dative case:

'aus' out of
'seit' since
'bei' at, near
'von' from
'mit' with
'zu' to
'nach' towards, after, according to
'gegenüber' opposite
'laut' according to

Prepositions that take either Dative or Accusative:

'an' at, on, to, by
'vor' in front of, before
'auf' on (someting flat)
'über' over
'hinter' behind
'unter' under, among
'in' in, into
'zwischen' between
'neben' near, beside

After the prepositions above, the accusative case is used to show movement to a place, while the dative case is used to show rest or movement at a place.

Prepositions that take the Genitive case: