© 2000 Mike Wills Learning Services

In German prepositions are always followed by a particular case. Most of them are followed by the accusative or dative case. The following tables show the more common prepositions and the cases that they take.

Prepositions which are always followed by the accusative:

bis	until
durch	through
für	for
gegen	against
ohne	without
um	around
entlang	along

Prepositions which are always followed by the dative:

mit	with/by
nach	after/to places
von	of/from/by
zu	to (mostly) people/at
aus	from/out of
bei	at/chez/near/with
seit	for/since
außer	except for/besides
gegenüber	opposite

AN... VORBEI, meaning past always takes dative. For example, Er geht am {an dem} Bahnhof vorbei.

Prepositions which take the accusative if moving towards the object and
take the dative if not moving towards the object:

in	in/into
an	at/by/ on (vertical surfaces)
auf	onto (horizontal surfaces)/on/at
vor	in front of/outside/before/ago
neben	next to/beside
hinter	behind
zwischen	between
über	over/across/about(concerning)
unter	under/among/beneath

Prepositions which are always followed by the genitive:

während	during
trotz	in spite of
(an)statt	instead of
wegen	because of
innerhalb	inside

Contractions

an dem	am	at/on the
an das	ans	(on)to the
auf das	aufs	on(to)/up(to)/upon the
bei dem	beim	at/near the
für das	fürs	for the
in das	ins	in(to) the
in dem	im	in the
von dem	vom	from/of the
zu dem	zum	to the
zu der	zur	to the