80 Providing spatial context
80.1 Asking ‘where?’
See^7 (p. 12),^9 (p. 14) and 50.5 (p. 131) on interrogatives;^69 (pp. 211–15) and^71
(pp. 221–4) on existence and availability.(a) For simply asking ‘where?’wo? ‘where?’Wo habe ich diese Datei gespeichert?
Where did I save this file?(b) When asking for the specific location of one item out of a group of items, use
welch- with the appropriate ending. (See 24.1b for the declension of welcher.)- Welchen Computer soll ich reparieren?
- Den da drüben, bitte.
- Which computer am I to repair?
- The one over there, please.
Welch- can be used with a preceding preposition:Über welche Themen wirst du im Examen geprüft?
Which topics will you be examined on?Unter welchem Dateinamen hast du diesen Bericht abgelegt?
Which filename did you use for this report?In welcher Mappe liegt der Bericht?
Which folder is the report in?80.2 Expressing ‘here’ and ‘there’
hier ‘here’
da ‘there’ (sth. fairly close)
dort ‘there’ (sth. further away)NOTE da sein is also used to denote presence (see 69.1).To pinpoint a place, use:an dieser Stelle ‘at this spot’
an diesem Ort ‘at this place’
an diesem Punkt ‘at this point’
(genau) hier/da ‘right here/there’An dieser Stelle stand einmal eine Kapelle.
There used to be a chapel on this spot.80
Providing spatial context