Wir liefen um den Sportplatz herum.
We ran around the sports ground.50.5 (a) Interrogatives, or question words, represent another type of adverb. Some are
formed with the suffix hin or her:
wann ‘when?’
warum ‘why?’
was ‘what?’
wer ‘who?’
wie ‘how?’
wo ‘where?’
woher ‘where from?’
wohin ‘where to?’
(b) Several interrogatives consist of wo + preposition. Note that if the preposition
begins with a vowel, r is inserted:
wodurch ‘by/through what?’
wohin ‘where to?’
womit ‘with what?’
woraus ‘out of what?’
worin ‘what in?’
worüber ‘what about?’
wovon ‘about what?’
Wohin fahrt ihr morgen?
Where are you going tomorrow?Wovon handelt das Buch?
What’s the book about?Wo r ü ber haben Sie sich unterhalten?
What did you talk about? See 10.6 (p. 16) for these forms as relative pronouns; see also^7 (p. 12) on direct questions
and 9 (p. 14) on indirect questions.50.6 For each of the interrogatives in 50.5b there is a corresponding adverb:
dadurch ‘through it/that’
danach ‘after it/that’
daraus ‘out of it/that’
davor ‘before/in front of it’, etc.Dahin ‘to there’ and daher ‘from there’ (also ‘therefore’) are the corresponding forms
for wohin and woher respectively. See^32 (p. 58) and 38.2 (p. 93).
Ich bin danach sofort nach Hause gegangen.
I went straight home after that.Siehst du das rote Auto davor?
Can you see the red car in front of it?Daher habt ihr keine Alternative. Ihr müsst mitkommen.
You therefore have no choice. You must come with us.50
Adverbs