the whole prepositional phrase has been italicized.Remember: this means that every time you use one of these technically genitive prepositions, the noun that follows it is supposed to be in the genitive case (though it is colloquially more frequently put into the dative case).Ĭheck out the following examples and note:
Let’s spell this out by looking at some actual examples with genitive prepositions!Īgain, there are 12 common-ish prepositions that are technically genitive: (an)statt, außerhalb, innerhalb, oberhalb, unterhalb, trotz, während, wegen, diesseits, jenseits, beid(er)seits, unweit
Read here for more info on pattern #4, which is ONLY for rulebreaker plural determiners. Additionally, in pattern #3 there is the added nuance: adjectives preceding masculine and neuter nouns take the weak declensions! (But adjectives in front of feminine and plural nouns take the strong declension as presented in the graphic). As per the graphic, a genitive prepositional phrase may NOT be used with pattern #2. This graphic shows you ALL the declension patterns that exist in German: strong or weak) is a matter of working with declensions patterns! 4 Declensions Patterns determiner or adjective … or even noun!) needs which declension (i.e. NOTE: in the genitive, masculine & neuter nouns will also take an -(e)s strong declension! big, small, round, flat, blue).Īll determiners or adjectives in a genitive prepositional phrase will take either the strong or weak declension listed under the gender that lines up with the gender of the noun in the phrase: that tell us how many of the noun or which one.Īdjectives: describe some feature of the noun (e.g. 😀ĭeclensions signal the gender & case of the following noun - in this case, nouns within a genitive prepositional phrase.ĭeclensions are just single letters (-r, -e, -s, -n, -m) added to the ends just TWO types of words that are part of prepositional phrases and come in front of nouns:ĭeterminers: a, the, some, few, this, etc. Let’s learn genitive prepositions, including when & how to use them. But if you’re here, that means you’ve already tackled those essential items … so, why not? Learning genitive prepositions is far from top-of-the-list when learning German. Do you need to learn genitive prepositions yourself? That is completely up to you! Do I personally ever use genitive prepositions in everyday speech (and hopefully don’t sound full of myself)? Yep, I do. Are there some Germans who use genitive prepositions in everyday speech (and yet aren’t pompous Arschlöcher)? Absolutely. And prepositions are no exception.Įxcept for the 50+ genitive prepositions that are only used formally anyway, ALL the genitive prepositions listed above (10 common-ish ones, total) can be used with the dative case, too.Īnd that is what you’re more likely to hear. More-and-more, though, genitive is replaced by the dative in spoken German. book, in an ad, or in a form you need to fill out at city hall. 
On a day-to-day basis, this means you most likely to come across genitive prepositions in written German - whether in a high-lit. In my experience, I’d say that in formal settings (or any other time someone is trying to look smart), YES, genitive prepositions are still used. Read the list below in the Digging Deeper section (<– coming soon!).ĭo Germans really use genitive prepositions?Īsk various Germans this and you’ll surely get different answers! There are about 50 genitive prepositions used in formal / official registers, including academic writing, legalese, and commercial language. The 8 less-common German genitive prepositions are used to express space (or time) relationships: These are the 4 more-common German genitive prepositions with their approximate English translations are (<– remember, prepositions do NOT necessarily have easy 1-to-1 equivalents!): Three are 3 main groups of genitive prepositions: What you need to know to start getting the hang of German genitive Prepositions What are the genitive prepositions?
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