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Jan 9, 2024 · German, much like English, employs distinct words for various times of the day. Understanding both indefinite and definite time expressions is key for understanding what is happening when. For instance, Heute Morgen denotes “this morning” in German, while morgens means “every morning.”
In this part of the series, we'll go over all the words that refer to a specific point in time - days, tomorrow, next week, months and so on. Vocab: gestern, heute, morgen, Jahr, Monat, letzte, nächste
- German Prepositions Can’T Always Be Translated word-for-word.
- Accusative German Prepositions
- Dative German Prepositions
- Two-Way German Prepositions
- German genitive Prepositions
- What’s The Difference Between Wegen and Weil in German?
- German Prepositional Contractions
- German Prepositions and Motion – An, Auf, In, Nach, zu.
- German Prepositions to Describe Position Or Location
- German Prepositions and Time Expressions.
Below, I’ll introduce lots of German prepositions and tell you their English meanings. But be careful with your translations! German and English prepositions don’t have a one-to-one correspondence, and there are various idiomatic uses you need to be aware of. First of all, just because a German preposition looks like an English preposition, doesn’t...
The following German prepositions always take an accusative: 1. bis– “until, up to, as far as” 2. durch– “through, by means of” 3. für– “for” 4. ohne– “without” 5. gegen– “against, toward” 6. um– “around, for” 7. entlang– “along” Here are some examples. Note how the bolded nouns or pronouns are accusative. 1. Er kocht für die Kinder.– “He cooks for...
The following German prepositions always take a dative: 1. ab– “from” (time) 2. aus– “from, out of” 3. außer– “except for” 4. bei– “at, near, at the house of” 5. dank– “thanks to” 6. entgegen– “contrary to” 7. gegenüber– “opposite” 8. gemäß– “according to” 9. laut– “according to” 10. mit– “with” 11. nach– “after, to” 12. seit– “since, for” 13. von–...
The trickiest German prepositions are the Wechselpräpositionen,also known as the “two-way prepositions”. They’re sometimes also called the “dual case prepositions”. These prepositions can take the dative oraccusative: 1. an– “on (a vertical surface)” 2. auf– “on top of (horizontal surface)” 3. hinter– “behind” 4. in– “in, into” 5. neben– “next to” ...
The final category of German prepositions are the genitive prepositions. 1. anstatt (often abbreviated to just statt) – “instead [of]” 2. außerhalb– “outside of” 3. beiderseits– “on both sides” 4. diesseits– “on this side” 5. innerhalb– “inside of” 6. jenseits– “on the other side” 7. oberhalb– “above” 8. trotz– “despite” 9. unterhalb– “below” 10. w...
I just told you that the preposition wegen means “because of”. But you’re probably also familiar with the words weilwhich means “because”. What’s the difference? Weil is a conjunction, not a preposition. Wegen is followed by a noun or pronoun, but weil is followed by an entire clausewhich explains the reason for the thing being described. 1. Wegenm...
Earlier, I mentioned how the German word im is a contraction of the preposition in and the article dem. It’s like how in English we usually say “I’m” instead of “I am” and “they’re” instead of “they are”. German has loads of these preposition + definite article contractions. Almost all of them involve the articles das (neuter accusative) or dem (ma...
When describing movement or motion, there are various prepositions you could use. Use nachfor countries, continents, islands, cities, and towns: 1. Ich reise nach Deutschland / nach Europa / nach Berlin / nach Sizilien.– “I am traveling to Germany / Europe / Berlin / Sicily.” For countries with a “the” in their name, use in. (Note that some countri...
The previous section explained which preposition to choose when describing motion towards an object. What about static position? That is, what preposition should you use to describe where something is, rather than where it’s going? In, auf and ancan be used to describe a static position in exactly the same contexts as described above for motion. 1....
The German prepositions an, in and umare used in various expressions about time and date. Why use three different prepositions? Well, why in English do we say “on Monday”, “at 7pm” and “inFebruary”? I’m not sure, but you need to remember the rules. Use am (which, as we just saw, is a contraction of an and dem) for days of the week and dates: 1. am ...
- Moin, moin. Meaning: Morning/Hi/Hello/Good day/How are you? This multi-purpose phrase is mostly used in Northern Germany.
- Geil. Meaning: Awesome/Cool/Sexy. This slang term can be used for all things good, but tread carefully—it can refer to sexual arousal, too.
- Dit jefällt ma. Meaning: I like it. This is Berlinian dialect for Das gefällt mir (I like it).
- Na? Meaning: Hey, what’s up?/ How are you?/ Well? You can even answer this with Naaa? to say “I’m good, how about you?”
Here you will find more than 700 idioms used in German-speaking countries, and their English meanings. For a bit of fun, the literal translations are also provided. Browse the list, or search for a specific idiom alphabetically or using the search function below.
This book contains over 2,000 useful German words intended to help beginners and intermediate speakers of German acquaint themselves with the most common and frequently used German vocabulary.
