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List of Common German Prepositions

Preposition: words used before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, time, place, location, spatial relationships, or to introduce an object.

Accusative Prepositions

Bis	by, to, until, up to	bis nächste Woche	until next week
Durch	through, across	Wir gehen durch das  Tor	We’re walking through the gate
Entlang	along, down	Sie fährt die Straße  entlang	She drives down the street
Für	for	Er kocht für seine  Freundin	He cooks for his girlfriend
Gegen	against, for	gegen die Mauer	against the wall
Ohne	without	ohne Wasser	without water
Um	at, around	um Mitternacht	at midnight

Dative Prepositions

Aus	from, out of	aus dem Supermarkt	from the  supermarket
Bei	at, near	bei meinem Vater Haus	at my dad’s house
Mit	with	mit meiner Mutter	with my mum
Nach	after, to	nach der Schule	after school
Seit	since, for	Seit Februar	since February
Von	from, of	weg von zu Hause	away from home
Zu	to	zu den Geschäften gehen	to go to the shops

Two-Way Prepositions

Some prepositions within the German language are two-way prepositions, which means they can be either accusative or dative. The simple rule to remember is: if you are referring to either movement or direction, you use the accusative case, whereas if you are referring to location or position, you use the dative.

Some of the most common two-way prepositions include:

An	to, on
Auf	on, upon
Hinter	behind
In	in, into
Neben	next to
Von	from, of
Zu	to

in into, in

Hause gebäude (Kino, Bar, Ausstellung)

Orte mit "Grenzen" (Park, Wald)

"Im" and "am" are contractions of the prepositions in/an and the article "dem" for the masculine Dative case.

im

“Im” is a merger of “in” + “dem” 

which means that it uses the Dativ case.

Germans use “im” if they would like to express “inside of.” In terms of fixes prepositions, you use “im” in German to talk about the year’s seasons or the months.

 

im Frühling

im Sommer

im Winter

im Herbst

 

im as a contraction of in dem

in dem Haus ist Licht > Im Haus ist Licht - There is light in the house.

 

im in the meaning of during or at a course of action

Die Konferenz ist im Gang(e). The conference is in progress.

 

 

 

am

Like “im”, also “am” is a merger of “an” + “dem”

In German, you will always have to use “am” if you refer to a specific day, times of the day, or date. 

 

am Montag

am Dienstag

am Vormittag

am Nachmittag

am Morgen

 

in

So if you are talking about a motion or a change of places, you should use Accusative and in this case you use "in + den/die/das/die" (in + das merge to ins, special usage). This case is mostly used with "into" in English.

I'm walking into the class — Ich gehe in die Klasse. Accusative, Feminine

 

If you are talking about a location, you should use Dative and in this case you use "in + dem/der/dem/den" (in + dem merge to im, special usage).

in the cage — im Käfig (in + dem Käfig) Dative, Masculine.

Er hat seine Hausaufgaben gemacht. Dann ist er ins (in das) Bett gegangen

 

 

 

um

 

To talk about a precise time: UM

 

um 19 Uhr

um 12 Uhr

um 8 Uhr

um Mitternacht