Prepositions in German
Okay, so I understand what a preposition is, in English at least. Pretty easy, it's a word that shows something's location and whatnot in relation to another.

Ex:

I am IN the house.
I am ON the ground.
he is IN the car.

But, it seems a little more complicated in German. Please explain, lol.

Something to do with cases I've heard.

Question

Prepositions in German
Okay, so I understand what a preposition is, in English at least.  Pretty easy, it's a word that shows something's location and whatnot in relation to another.

Ex:

I am IN the house.
I am ON the ground.
he is IN the car.

But, it seems a little more complicated in German.  Please explain, lol.

Something to do with cases I've heard.

Answer

Well, yes, you have to remember which case is required after each preposition, and as Jonas said, some prepositions are connected with (determinate) articles in certain cases. But apart from that, prepositions work in German just like in English or plenty of other languages – do you have examples what seems more complicated?

Answer

Yeah, I'm a 9th grade German 1 student, and I asked an older kid who took all the courses and he said it just sounds weird to say "in dem".  He said it is just more usual to say "im".

Answer

I think it´s because in german you connect the prepositions. For example your sentece I´m in the house in german would be: Ich bin im Haus. So "im" is the preposition "in" + "dem", because you could also say: "Ich bin in dem Haus" but with "im" it´s more common :)

Answers · 5

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