What's a preposition?
Prepositions connect words and groups of words together. They express the relation between living beings, things or contexts.
Here's an example:
"Harry - fliegt - London" doesn't make much sense. Is Harry flying to London or from London?
Inserting a preposition, such as "über", describes the relation between Harry and London:
"Harry - fliegt - über - London".
Now we know that London is just a stopover on Harry's trip. He's actually flying to Traponia.
Location prepositions
German prepositions that describe spatial relations, like placement, or directional relations, are called location prepositions or prepositions of location.
They answer the questions "Wo?" (where?), "Woher?" (from where?) or "Wohin?" (to where?).
The following spatial prepositions answer the question "Wohin?". Use them when you want to talk about a destination or buy a ticket.
Wohin? (Where to?)
These prepositions are used to describe a change of location and directional movement.
| nach | Names of countries without an article, cities, directions | Ich fliege nach Brasilien. Ich fliege nach Rio. Gehen Sie nach rechts. |
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| zu | e.g. to people | Ich fliege zu meiner Familie. | ||
| auf | e.g. to islands, mountains | Es gibt Flüge auf die Kanarischen Inseln… | ||
| in | Names of countries with an article, closed regions and spaces | Es gibt Flüge in den Libanon und in die USA. Harry möchte in die Stadt fahren. |
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| über | e.g. stopovers on a trip | Wir fliegen um 20 Uhr über London nach Traponia. |
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Memorization makes it easier! There are many prepositions that can mean more than one thing, depending on the relations they describe. For example, the German preposition "in" can indicate where something or someone is. Harry ist in Deutschland. So it doesn't make sense to translate and learn individual prepositions. It's better to learn them within their context. |