In this guide, we’re focusing on accusative prepositional phrases - so how do we make sure the noun in the phrase is properly marked as being in the accusative case? a preposition … but also verbs and adjectives!) require the following noun to be in a particular case. So, sometimes German nouns are in a particular case because of the role they play in the sentence, but sometimes just because another word (e.g. They are in whatever case because of the preposition, not because of the noun’s function. HOWEVER, nouns in prepositional phrases aren’t playing the role of subject or direct object, etc. There are prepositional phrases that have to be in the accusative, dative, or genitive cases (none in the nominative case except for the idiomatic was für ein … ‘whatta … ’). Now, at the same time that we can have other nouns functioning within these different roles, we might optionally have prepositional phrases on top of that - and, again, every prepositional phrase has to be in a particular case, too! Genitive (for nouns that express ‘possession’, loosely defined, of another noun) If you think of every sentence as having ‘slots’ that get filled up with nouns, those ‘slots’ are the German cases: How to ‘signal’ an accusative prepositional phraseĪll prepositions occur within a prepositional phrase - and all German prepositional phrases must be in one of the 4 cases. how to pick out the correct declensions for the right words every time!.declension types (strong or weak) & patterns (there are 4).which words in a prepositional phrase need declensions.which declensions (In order to use an accusative preposition, you have to know how to ‘signal’ that your prepositional phrase is in the accusative case and that is a matter of knowing … How to use the accusative prepositions is much more straightforward! It’s far better to pay close attention to authentic German (native speakers, music, movies, books, etc.) and the contexts in which the 5 accusative prepositions are used - that is how you’ll really learn when to use durch, für, gegen, ohne and um! Sure, you have the provided approximate English translations to get you started … But remember that it’s not often a simple 1-to-1 with English & German prepositions! When to use accusative prepositions is a more complex topic than we will tackle in this section. And nouns in prepositional phrases are no exceptions! When & how to use Accusative Prepositions All German nouns have to be in a particular case. Remember: we can’t just pair a noun with a preposition all willy-nilly. The 5 German accusative prepositions with their approximate English translations (on a very basic, surface level) are: Turns out there are also about 28 common German prepositions! And only 5 accusative ones. You take whatever preposition indicates the meaning you want, pair it with whatever noun, maybe use a determiner or some adjectives and done. Prepositions in English are relatively very simple and we have about 28 common ones:Ībove, across, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, by, down, from, in, into, near, of, off, on, to, toward, under, upon, with and within You have to learn all the German prepositions and how they are used in German - which doesn’t necessarily line up in a neat-and-tidy way with how we use prepositions in English. OR ‘at’ used in English might be the German preposition bei … or auf … or in.ĭo you see what I mean? Prepositions are not 1-to-1 in English and German. that’s not so bad!’īut the way we use, say, ‘to’ in English might be the German preposition zu … or nach … or auf. Why? Because there are rarely 1-to-1 translations of prepositions.įor example, as an English speaker you might think ‘ok, I just need to learn the German words for to, from, at, etc. Prepositions are are one of THE HARDEST groups of words to learn in a new language. with Mom, for you, to Granddad, etc.) or as long as preposition + determiner + adjective(s) + noun:Īs you can see, prepositional phrases can’t stand alone ^^ - they have to be part of a larger sentence in order to make sense (e.g. Prepositions introduce prepositional phrases that might be as short as preposition + noun (e.g. Prepositions are used in combination with a noun (or pronoun) to indicate… Prepositions are important little words such as with, for, under, over, to, etc. What you need to know with German Accusative Prepositions What are prepositions? 3 ‘sort of’ accusative prepositions (honorable mentions!).how to use accusative prepositions idiomatically.how to use the accusative case with accusative prepositions.what the 5 German accusative prepositions are.
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