Today we’re going to dive into the world of prepositions. What are they? They are the simple, usually short words that cannot live on their own. They always accompany other words – nouns or pronouns.
Some common English prepositions include in, to, for, with, from, without, between, next to, into, off, through and many more. They are used with pronouns in objective case, so we have: to me, for him, without her, from us, between them.
In German prepositions may be used with any of the cases. Some of them are always used with accusative case, others with dative case, still others with genitive case. Some of the prepositions may be used with more than one case, but usually the meaning is slightly different.
Prepositions Used with Accusative Case
Today let’s concentrate on prepositions that are always used with the accusative case. If you come across any of them, you know for sure: what follows, whether a noun or a pronoun, must be in accusative case.
The most important prepositions in this group include:
für – for
| Ich koche für dich. | I’m cooking for you. |
| Kochst du auch für deinen Mann? | Do you also cook for your husband? |
| Ja, für ihn koche ich auch. | Yes, I also cook for him. |
ohne – without
| Er reist ohne seine Frau. | He travels without his wife. |
| Er kann aber ohne sie nicht leben. | But he can’t live without her. |
| Er muss diesmal ohne seinen Hund reisen. | This time he has to travel without his dog. |
gegen – against, about
| Sie protestieren gegen den Krieg. | They’re protesting against the war. |
| Sie haben gegen elf Uhr angefangen. | They started at about eleven o’clock. |
| Sie haben aber nichts gegen euch. | But they don’t have anything against you. |
durch – through
| Durch die Fenster sieht man die Berge. | You can see the mountains through the windows. |
| Der Geist ist durch die Wand durchgekommen. | The ghost came through the wall. |
| Jemand lauschte durch die Tür. | Someone was listening through the door. |
um – around, at
| Ich sehe ihn nicht, vielleicht wartet er um die Ecke. | I can’t see him, maybe he’s waiting around the corner. |
| Er hat immer gern Freunde um sich. | He likes to always have friends around him. |
| Vielleicht kommt er erst um drei Uhr. | Maybe he’ll only come at three o’clock. |
There are some more prepositions like these, but these are the most used ones. So, whenever you see one of the above prepositions, you can automatically use the accusative case.
Contractions
Sometimes you can see contracted forms of prepositions above and articles. The following contractions are the most typical ones:
| für + das | fürs | für das Kind | fürs Kind | for the child |
| durch + das | durchs | durch das Feuer | durchs Feuer | through fire |
| um + das | ums | um das Zentrum | ums Zentrum | around the center |
They are not obligatory. You can use either form.