Prepositional Pitfalls > By-Expressions > More By-Expressions
Which "by" do you mean?
Take at look at this somewhat improbable English sentence: By the way, the poem by Schiller is by the window and you walked right by it, but by now you can recite it by heart by giving it some thought.
Of course, the seven occurrences of "by" in our sample sentence make it sound a bit odd. But did you also notice that each use of "by" has a different basic meaning? Each of the seven by-phrases is used in quite a different way. Sometimes English by indicates cause, but in other cases it indicates location, refers to time, or has yet another meaning.
Since "by" has so many different meanings in English, it is not reasonable to expect German to parallel English. And, indeed, if we translate the sentence above into German, we discover that for each instance of "by," German uses a different word or expression: Übrigens, das Gedicht von Schiller ist am Fenster und du bist gleich daran vorbeigegangen, aber inzwischen kannst du es auswendig rezitieren, indem du kurz darüber nachdenkst. (The German sounds as odd as the original English, of course.)
The point we're trying to make here is that since "by" is such a common word, we need to be careful about which German word best expresses it. That means paying attention to the different meanings of "by" and the various ways that it is used. When we express "by" in German, we need to understand which "by" we're using!
Here are some "by" examples with six different German prepositions:
1. an right by, next to > am See = by the lake, at the lake
2. bei near, in the vicinity > bei Berlin = by Berlin, near Berlin
3. bis no later than, until, up to > bis Freitag = by Friday
4. durch caused by, through > durch Zufall = by chance
5. mit with, by means of > mit dem Auto = by car
6. von (written) by > von Ernest Hemingway = by Ernest Hemingway
Idiomatic Expressions
Several idiomatic expressions in German use "by" when translated into English:
auswendig by heart, by rote
Er hat es auswendig gelernt. (He learned it by heart.)
übrigens by the way
Übrigens, sind wir am Montag nicht da. (By the way, we won't here on Monday.)
vorbei- (pass) by
Wir sind an der Kirche vorbeigefahren. (We drove by the church.)
It is rare when English and German agree on the use of "by." One such example would be bei der Hand nehmen (to take by the hand), but the variation an der Hand is also possible. On the next page you'll find a more complete version of this chart for "by" in German.
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