German for Beginners
Lektion 14
Part 2

Was sind Sie von Beruf?
Accusative Prepositions
Pronouns in the Accusative

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Below is an overview of the German accusative prepositions. When studying the prepositions, it is wise to remember that they don't always translate the same way. For example (zum Beispiel), English "for" can be expressed in German by the dative case or all of these prepositions: auf, für, nach, um, and zu. Of these, only für and um are accusative prepositions. Prepositions can be a dangerous minefield, so study them well, and carefully observe how they are used. Notice also that some of the prepositions below (durch, um) can mean more than one thing in English. (See our feature entitled Prepositional Pitfalls for more about this.)

By "accusative prepositions" we mean those that always "govern" or "take" the accusative case. An accusative preposition will always be followed by an object (a noun or pronoun) in the accusative case. We will cover the dative and genitive prepositions in later lessons.

Luckily, there are only five accusative prepositions you need to learn and memorize. In the chart below, we have listed each preposition in German and English (left column) with example prepositional phrases (right column). Another thing that makes this group of prepositions easier is the fact that only the masculine gender (der) changes in the accusative case. As we already pointed out in Lektion 11, neither the plural nor the feminine (die) and neuter (das) genders change in the accusative.

GRAMMAR NOTE: The pronoun er (he) follows the same pattern as the definite article der (with which it rhymes!). Just as der changes to den, er changes to ihn (also with an "n" at the end). Also keep in mind that the pronoun er can mean "it" when it refers to a masculine non-personal noun: der Wagen (the car) = er (it).

Like er, all of the German personal pronouns have an accusative form that is different from the nominative (subject) form – except for Sie/sie and es. This is similar to the case changes in English (he/him, I/me, she/her).

Accusative Prepositions
Präpositionen	Beispiele
durch through, by	durch die Stadt through the city durch den Wald through the forest durch den Wind (caused) by the wind
für for	für das Buch for the book für ihn for him für mich for me
gegen against, for	gegen alle Erwartungen against all expectations gegen die Mauer against the wall gegen Kopfschmerzen (medicine) for a headache gegen mich against me
ohne without	ohne den Wagen without the car ohne ihn without him ohne mich without me (count me out)
um around, for	um den See around the lake um eine Stelle (apply) for a job Er bewirbt sich um eine Stelle. He's applying for a position.
NOTE: The German preposition bis is technically an accusative preposition, but since it's almost always used with a second preposition (bis zu, bis auf, etc.) in a different case, it's not listed above.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS in the ACCUSATIVE
NOMINATIVE	ACCUSATIVE
ich I	mich me
du you (fam.)	dich you
er he sie she es it	ihn him sie her es it
wir we	uns us
ihr you (guys)	euch you (guys)
sie they	sie them
Sie you (formal)	Sie you (formal)
da- Compounds
All of the accusative prepositions except "ohne" and "bis" form what are called "da-compounds" to express what would be a prepositional phrase in English. Da-compounds are not used for people (personal pronouns). Prepositions beginning with a vowel add a connecting r. See the examples below.
THING	PERSON
dadurch through it, by it	durch ihn/sie through him/her
dafür for it	für ihn/sie for him/her
dagegen against it	gegen ihn/sie against him/her
darum for that reason	um ihn/sie around him/her
Also see: Lektion 11 - Part 2 The Accusative Case

COMING UP: Exercises for this lesson.

Part 1 of this Lesson (Occupations)

Previous Lesson (Lektion 13 - Essen und Trinken)

German for Beginners - Contents

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Related Links

Akkusative - Lektion 11
The accusative case.

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