Reference · module 32
Verbs and their prepositions
Everything this module explains, on one page.
The pairs to learn
Use the twenty verb-preposition pairs that carry most conversations.
- achten auf, sich freuen über, sich freuen auf, denken an, sich erinnern an, teilnehmen an, bestehen aus, gehören zu. Each is one item to learn, not two.
- sich freuen shows why: über is about something that has happened, auf about something coming. Ich freue mich über dein Geschenk, ich freue mich auf den Sommer.
- The case is fixed too, and it is not the one movement would give you: an with denken is accusative, an with teilnehmen is dative.
The mistake you are about to make
Ich denke über dich.
Ich denke an dich.
"Think about" walks straight into über. Denken is fixed to an: ich denke an dich. Über with denken exists and means to ponder something over.
darauf, damit, davon
Refer back to a thing after a fixed preposition.
- German cannot say auf es. For a thing it glues da to the preposition instead: darauf, damit, davon, dafür, darüber.
- An r appears when the preposition starts with a vowel: da plus auf is darauf, da plus über is darüber. Da plus mit needs none: damit.
- For a person the pronoun stays: Ich denke an ihn, not daran. The da-words are only ever about things and situations.
The mistake you are about to make
Ich warte auf es.
Ich warte darauf.
German cannot say auf es at all. For a thing the preposition fuses onto da — darauf, damit, davon — with an r whenever the preposition starts with a vowel.
worauf, womit, wovon
Ask a question about the thing a verb attaches to.
- The question form works the same way with wo: Worauf wartest du? Womit schreibst du? Wovon sprichst du?
- The same r appears before a vowel: wo plus auf is worauf, wo plus über is worüber. wo plus mit is simply womit.
- For a person the preposition takes a pronoun again: Auf wen wartest du? Two forms of one question, split by whether the answer is a person.
The mistake you are about to make
Auf was wartest du?
Worauf wartest du?
English splits them — what are you waiting for — so was and auf stay apart. For a thing German fuses them into worauf; only a person keeps them separate: auf wen.
Noun-verb pairs
Recognise the fixed combinations formal German is built from.
- Formal German prefers a noun plus a light verb: eine Entscheidung treffen, eine Frage stellen, Kritik üben, in Kontakt treten.
- The verb is almost empty and the noun carries the meaning. treffen means to meet, and eine Entscheidung treffen simply means to decide.
- Each pair is fixed. eine Entscheidung machen is understandable and wrong, in the way that making a decision is fine and doing a decision is not.
The mistake you are about to make
eine Entscheidung machen
eine Entscheidung treffen
English makes a decision, so machen is the obvious verb. German meets one: eine Entscheidung treffen. The verb in each pair is fixed and means nothing on its own.