>>> PLEASE READ THE TEXT BELOW AS THE VIDEO DOESN'T COVER ALL PREPOSITIONS <<<
What's good to know
Prepositions can be used in 3 ways:
- in a temporal sense i.e. helping with time
- in a local sense i.e. helping with places
- arbitrarily
Whenever a preposition is used in a temporal or local sense, it has a very reliable and clear translation. Some prepositions are also very easy to use due to their similarity to English. In those cases I've added a third example below or added an "always" to their translation.
In all other cases, where these translations do not make sense, you got a case of Verbs (or nouns or adjectives) with prepositions which "simply" have to be learned by heart. That was covered in my A1-B1 course.
The meaning and use of the accusative prepositions
Let's take a look at the accusative prepositions. The numbers before the sample sentences relate to their temporal (=1) or local (=2) or arbitrary (=3) use:
entlang - (always) along
2. Gehen Sie die Straße entlang.
durch - (always) through
2. Komm. Wir gehen durch den Park.
um - around (1+2) / about (3)
1. Ich komme um acht.
2. Er geht um das Hindernis (=obstacle) herum.
3. In Harry Potter geht es um einen Zauberer.
gegen (not in video) - around (1) or against (2)
1. Ich komme gegen acht.
2. Sie läuft gegen den Poller.
für - (always) for
1. NEVER USE "für" IN A TEMPORAL SENSE!
2. Das ist für Dich. <<< I admittedly stretch the concept of "local" here a little but "für" always translates as "for" yet not every "for" translates into "für". Ponder a bit on this difference.
bis - (always) until (1+2)
1. Wir bleiben bis zum Schluss.
2. Local use not in video: Fahren Sie bis zur Kreuzung (=intersection).
ohne - (always) without
2. Ohne Dich gehe ich nirgendwohin. <<< again a little stretch but "ohne" always translates into "without" and is used the same way as in English.
The meaning and use of the dative prepositions
aus - out of / from
2. Ich komme aus der Schule.
bei - (always) at (only with names)
2. Ich bin bei Michael. NEVER: Ich bin "mit" Michael.
mit - (almost always) with
2. Ich schreibe mit dem Bleistift. <<< Not really local yet used 99% like in EN.
nach - after (1) / towards (names) (2)
1. Ich komme nach 10 Minuten zurück.
2. Ich fliege nach Berlin (=Berlin is the name of the German capital).
seit - since
1. Ich lebe seit vielen Jahren in Berlin. (99% of the times used with Präsens tense)
von - (always) from (places)
2. Ich komme von der Arbeit.
zu - (almost always) to(wards)
2. Ich gehe zur Arbeit.
The meaning and use of two-way prepositions
= Wechselpräpositionen
vor - before (1) / in front of (2)
1. Vor zehn Jahren sah ich besser aus.
2. Ich stehe vor der Tür.
hinter - (always) behind
2. Ich stehe hinter dir (also figuratively in the sense of support)
über - over (1) / above (2) / about (3)
1. Ich warte jetzt schon über eine Stunde.
2. Der Nachbar über mir.
3. Ich habe ein Buch über die Deutsche Kultur gelesen.
unter - under (1+3) / below (2)
1. Die Wartezeit beträgt unter 3 Stunden.
2. Unter meiner Wohnung ist eine Kita.
3. Das fällt unter das Datenschutzgesetz (=privacy law).
neben - (always) next to
2. Ich stelle mich neben dich.
an - on/at
1. Ich komme am Samstag.
2. Ich sitze an meinem Tisch.
zwischen - (always) between
1. Ich komme zwischen acht und neun vorbei.
2. Ich stehe zwischen diesen Damen und der Wand.
auf - on (top of)
2. Ich sitze auf dem Stuhl.
in - in/inside of
1. Ich komme in drei Tagen.
2. Ich bin in der Küche.
How to deal with prepositions that don't make sense
= Verbs with prepositions
If a preposition doesn't make any of the above mentioned sense, it simply has to be learned by heart. E.g. in the sentence:
Ich warte auf den Bus. | I'm waiting for the bus.
You'll notice that in EN you'd use "for" and not "on top". You are not waiting "on top" of a bus and therefore the preposition "auf" doesn't work as we'd like it to work. We need to use "auf" because "warten" is simply married to that preposition. There's no logic behind why this is so hence there is nothing (!) to understand. All you can do is to learn this connection (warten + auf) by heart.
This phenomenon is called VERBS WITH PREPOSITIONS. By the way: any language that uses prepositions suffers from the same issue. There is no logic to why "waiting" is married to "for" or "afraid" to "of".
If you don't remember the beautiful technique from my A1-B1 course, make sure to check out my lesson there via the link at the top of this page.
Here's a course on Memrise with a couple of B2 verb-preposition combinations (and also noun and adjective ones). Take it easy though as list learning is not the most efficient kind of learning out there.
Download a list of the most common verbs with prepositions here
TL, DR: If a preposition doesn't make sense, you need to learn it by heart with the verb its married to (rarely: noun or adjective)
This topic is covered in: B2-L06