Achtung: This is a complex matter. Don't try to memorize everything at once. We will guide you step by step through the more difficult parts of this topic. See this lesson rather as an initial overview.
Another German word for prepositions is Verhältniswort which literally means: word of relation. A relation in this context could be a position or relation to time, a cause or reason/condition, or they simply express the way things are. A few examples:
Ich wohne in der Lindenstraße. I live on Limestreet. > LOCATION
Wir kommen um acht Uhr. We will come at eight o’clock. > TIME
Unter diesen Umständen kann ich nicht arbeiten. I can‘t work under these conditions. > CONDITION
Basics
There are a few things that you will have to know when dealing with prepositions. The numbers in (brackets) indicate the example below:
- Prepositions always precede a noun (example 1) or pronoun (examples 2 & 4) and are never found alone or at the end of a sentence.(example 3)
- All prepositions require you to change the case* of the following noun, usually noticeable at the following pronoun (examples 2 & 4), the article (example 1) or the adjective (example 5) that often comes with the noun.
- The nominative is never to be found with a preposition. (example 6)
Examples
- Ich wohne in der Lindenstraße. I live on Lindenstraße.
in precedes the noun Lindenstraße.
- ir bleiben bei mir. We stay at my place.
bei precedes the pronoun mir. - Sie rufen immer zu spät an. You always call too late.
an stands alone at the end of the sentence and therefore can not be a preposition. It is a prefix in this case belonging to anrufen. - Wir bleiben bei mir. We stay at my place.
mir is a dative pronoun due to bei which requires us to use the dative and no other case. - Mein Kaffee kommt aus fernen Ländern. My coffee comes from far away countries.
fernen ends in -en which is the case-ending of the dative plural - WRONG: Ich esse mit "der" Löffel (m). I eat with the spoon.
der Löffel is nominative which is NEVER to be found after any preposition! The correct form would be: Ich esse mit dem Löffel.
A case for every preposition?
Generally it is very clear which case each preposition requires. You have already learned the dative prepositions and the accusative prepositions. What‘s left are those prepositions that unfortunately are not that decided, the two-way prepositions. Those are:
vor before/in front of
hinter behind
über above
unter under
an at/on
zwischen in between
auf on (top)
in in(side)
neben next to
Those are called two-way because they require either the accusative or the dative. It‘s important to understand when to use which case.