Phrasal verb in German

Some verbs in German require certain prepositions after themselves. We have mentioned such words more than once, but we have never dealt with this topic separately.

Different words require an Akkusativ or Dativ object after them. For example, “kaufen” – “buy” requires a noun name in Akkusativ (“who? what”), “helfen” – “help” requires an object in Dativ (“who? what?”). But the word “warten” – “wait” requires after itself the preposition “auf”.

• Ich warte auf dich – I wait for you.

In Russian you wouldn’t need an excuse, you’d just say that you’re waiting for an object in a parent case (“I’m waiting for who?”). These prepositions should be taught immediately with verbs, because without them you can’t use the word correctly.

Let us give you some examples of such verbs with prepositions:

• Sich freuen über + Akkusativ – rejoice/expect;
• Sich erinnern an + Akkusativ – to remember (something / someone);
• Hoffen auf + Akkusativ – hope for;
• Achten auf + Akkusativ – pay attention to / watch out;
• Zufrieden sein mit + Dativ – to be satisfied with something;
• Arbeiten an + Dativ – to work on;

This list can go on for a very long time. There are verbs that can be used with different prepositions, depending on this will change the meaning:

• Sich beschweren über + Akkusativ — complain about it;
• Sich beschweren bei + Dativ — complaining about someone.

Let’s remind that there are prepositions which are used only with Akkusativ (“bis”, “durch”, “für”, “ohne”, “gegen”, “um”), and there are prepositions which are used only with Dativ (“mit”, “nach”, “aus”, “zu”, “von”, “bei”, “seit”, “außer”, “gegenüber”). There are also prepositions which are used with both cases (“in”, “an”, “auf”, “neben”, “hinter”, “über”, “unter”, “vor”, “zwischen”). They have difficulties with them, so when learning a new verb, one should not only memorize the preposition which is used with it, but also the case which this preposition requires after itself.

• Schreiben an + Akkusativ – write to someone;
• Sterben an + Dativ – to die from.

As we parse the new verbs, we will immediately say which pretext and which case they require after themselves. With these prepositions we can make up question words, but we will write about it in the next material.