Two-Way Prepositions

Also called doubtful propositions, the two-way prepositions are those that can be used with either the accusative or dative case.

Prepositions in German determine the grammatical case of the articles and pronouns used with them. This lesson deals with those that take either the accusative or dative case to have slightly different meanings.

When used with the accusative case there is an implied motion, while the dative case suggests a static aspect. For instance with the two sentences below, in with the accusative case translates as “into”, while with the dative case translates simply as “in”:

Acusative
Die Leute gehen in das Gebäude.
The people go into the building.

Dative
Die Leute sind in dem Gebäude.
The people are in the building.

This is the same difference seen with the interrogative pronouns wo (where) and wohin (to where).

There are three other groups of German prepositions:

• accusative prepositions which generally imply motion
• dative prepositions which tend to be more static
• genitive prepositions which technically require the genitive case but more often is used with the dative.