German prepositions and cases can be tricky sometimes, and my 7 year old son is evidence of that. We were riding in the car recently and suddenly he asked me: Mommy, why do we say “in der Fahrspur “and then “in die Fahrspur”?
In fact, the only difference we can see in German is in the article. For example:
Ich fahre in der Fahrspur.
Ich fahre in die Fahrspur.
As a language learner, this is important to know because this tiny switch in the article changes the meaning of the entire sentence.
Ich fahre in der Fahrspur. I am driving in this lane. –> Dative (Expresses a location)
Ich fahre in die Fahrspur. I am driving into this lane. –> Accusative (Expresses a Direction)
With the English translation you can see the difference clearly in this example.
Let me give you an even more drastic example related to the change in meaning:
Ich fahre in dem Auto. I am driving in the car. –> Dative (Expresses a location)
Ich fahre in das Auto. I am driving into the car. (Ouch!) –> Accusative (Expresses a Direction)
You see in this case how important it can be to use the correct German case and article.
There are many more German verbs that can express both – location as well as direction.
gehen – to go
fliegen – to fly
hüpfen – to hop
springen – to jump
schweben – to float, hover
rollen – to roll
rennen – to run
laufen – to walk
and many more…
All of these verbs express some kind of movement. The movement can happen in a particular spot = location. The person or thing doesn’t change the location, even though he/she/it moves.
The movement can also happen into a direction. In this case, a change of location happens.
There are two English prepositions that express that well: across and above
The bird flies above the town. Der Vogel fliegt über der Stadt. –> Dative (Expresses a location)
The bird flies across the town. Der Vogel fliegt über die Stadt. –> Accusative (Expresses a Direction)
You see, in English a different preposition is used to express location vs. direction. In German, the change in case (Dative vs. Accusative) expresses the difference in meaning.
There are 9 German prepositions: an, in, über, hinter, unter, vor, auf, neben, zwischen that can be used for both – expressing a location (Dative) and direction (Accusative). They are also called dual prepositions or two-way prepositions.
As you can tell already in some cases only the case of the article determines whether one or the other is being expressed.
Recently I read a discussion about how important grammar is in language. This proves the point that grammar can be extremely important in expressing meaning in a language. The German cases and prepositions can make that much difference.
Let’s step it up a notch. Even trickier in these examples:
Er läuft hinter dem Haus. He is walking behind the house. Dative –> Expresses a location
Er läuft hinter das Haus. He is walking behind the house. Accusative –> Expresses a Direction
Der Hund rennt vor dem Auto. The dog is running in front of the car. Dative –> Expresses a location
Der Hund rennt vor das Auto. The dog is running in front of the car. Accusative –> Expresses a Direction
For the Germans among us these two examples won’t pose a problem.
But how about the language learners among us? Can you figure out how the meaning changes in these two examples and what the two cases in each one of the above examples exactly express?
Feel free to give me your take on it in the comment section…