6.7 Places and prepositions
Places which take "an"
You will already have noted that when you say that you are "at" several types of location in German, you use the preposition "an" - i.e. "am Bahnhof", "an der Ampel" etc.
If a German location uses "an" to translate "at", then you should use "zu" to describe movement towards such a place, and "von" to describe movement away from it. Thus when describing a bus stop you would say:
- die Bushaltestelle = the bus-stop
- an der Bushaltestelle = at the bus-stop
- zur Bushaltestelle = to the bus-stop
- von der Bushaltestelle = from the bus-stop
The following table explains this pattern for some more of the nouns which we have met so far.
Grammar 10: Movement to and from places taking "an" |
|
Place |
At the... |
To the... |
From... |
|
airport |
der Flughafen |
am Flughafen |
zum Flughafen |
vom Flughafen |
|
platform |
der Gleis |
am Gleis |
zum Gleis |
vom Gleis |
|
square |
der Platz |
am Platz |
zum Platz |
vom Platz |
|
station |
der Bahnhof |
am Bahnhof |
zum Bahnhof |
vom Bahnhof |
|
traffic lights |
die Ampel |
an der Ampel |
zur Ampel |
von der Ampel |
|
Neuter countries
We can construct a similar pattern for countries, but only those which are neuter. Here of course different prepositions are used and no definite articles. Note that all three prepositions "in", "nach" and "aus" take the dative case:
- Deutschland = Germany
- in Deutschland = in Germany
- nach Deutschland = to Germany
- aus Deutschland = from Germany
Grammar 11: Movement to and from countries |
|
Country |
In... |
To... |
From... |
|
England |
in England |
nach England |
aus England |
|
Irland |
in Irland |
nach Irland |
aus Irland |
|
Polen |
in Polen |
nach Polen |
aus Polen |
|
Test yourself!
You can test yourself on the use of prepositions in these contexts by clicking on the two bars below:
Chapter 6.8: Transport and prepositions
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