Intermediate German: A Grammar and Workbook

Note that in German, seitis usually used in connection with the present

tense.

• von–‘from’, ‘of ’, ‘by’ (often in constructions with the passive):
  Die E-Mail ist von meiner Chefin.
  The e-mail is from my employer.
  Sie ist eine alte Freundin von mir.
  She is an old friend of mine.
  Die Pläne wurden von einem Architekten entworfen.
  The plans were designed by an architect.


• zu– ‘to’ (to places or persons):
  Wie komme ich zum Supermarkt?
  How do I get to the supermarket?
  Ich gehe jetzt zu Susanna.
  I am going to Susanna’s.

Note that zu also appears in a variety of expressions, such as zum

Frühstück ‘for breakfast’, zu Fuß‘on foot’, zu Hause‘at home’.

Shortened forms

Note thatbei,vonandzuare usually joined together with dem:bei dem

→beim,von dem→vom, zu dem →zumandzu der is usually abbrev-

iated→zur:

Wirst du mich vom Flughafen abholen?

Will you collect me from the airport?

Kommen Sie doch zur Party!

Do come to the party!

Prepositions +accusative or dative

There is a group of prepositions which can either take the accusative or

dative case. These prepositions are called Wechselpräpositionen in German

(‘variable prepositions’).

120 Unit 16: Prepositions

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