Posted by To begin with, i’d like to stress that prepositional pronouns are not the same as prepositional objects. Do they both involve using prepositions? Yes! Do they both come after a direct and/or an indirect object? Yes! But are they both conditioned to grammatical cases? The answer is No! The reason is that one is merged to “da” while the other is free of it. Which is which then? Find out below!
What Are Prepositional Pronouns?
This group of pronouns are non-gender/case related unlike most other groups such as those of the personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns and relative pronouns etc. What this means is that they are used regardless of the gender of the noun they replace but for inanimate objects only.
Prepositional pronouns are neither direct nor indirect objects. Hence, they can be featured in a sentence that already has a direct and/or an indirect object without causing a thing. They therefore become objects that are devoid of grammatical cases whose position is the same as a prepositional object in the SVO standard order i.e Subject + Verb + Object + Preposition.
How To Form Prepositional Pronouns In German
To derive these pronouns, the word “da” which in this case best translates to “it” in English, is used in combination with all kinds of prepositions e.g mit instead of the neuter personal pronoun “es“. Therefore, the literal meaning of these pronouns become that of the preposition together with “it”. In other words, “with it” would be translated as damit i.e da + mit and not mit es.
Hence, the meaning of damit would be subjected to that of the “mit” in that instance which would depend on whether it is simply used alone or coined from a phrasal verb, a noun or an adjectival phrase which of course can vary sometimes from the plain translation of “with”.
They are often used in a relative sentence or sentences with Infinitiv und zu as well as alone. Most often, they are used in sentences or questions that involve verbs with preposition. To form prepositional pronouns, da or dar is attached to the preposition. Da is used when the preposition begins with a consonant but when it begins with a vowel such as a, e, i, o and u, then it takes on dar. For example; darüber, davon, daran, damit etc.
Examples of Prepositional Pronouns
Some of these pronouns and their literal translation in English include;
| German | Literal translation |
|---|---|
| dafür dabei davor dazu daran darum damit daraus darauf dagegen davon | for it with it in front of it to it at it around it with it out of it on it against it from it |
When To Use Prepositional Pronouns
These pronouns although could be used out of the blue which in this case takes the literal meaning of the preposition they are formed with, they are often used in response to questions and statements that contain prepositions which in this case have meanings that are just as intended in the sentence.
On the other hand, when it involves a verb or an adjective with preposition, the true meaning of the preposition is used rather than the literal one. For example, sprechen mit and ärgerlich auf; the prepositions mean to and with respectively instead of “with” and “on”. See more on how to use prepositional pronouns below!
| German | English |
|---|---|
| 1. Q-: Denkst du an das Interview? R-: Ja, ich denke daran. | Are you thinking of the interview. Yes, I am thinking of it. |
| 2. Q-: Wofür bist du dankbar? A-: Ich bin dankbar dafür, dass du mich eingeladen hast. | What are you grateful for? I am grateful (for it), that you invited me. |
| 3. Er ist dagegen. | He is against it |
On the other hand, when it involves a verb or an adjective with preposition, the true meaning of the preposition is used rather than the literal one. For example, sprechen mit and ärgerlich auf; the prepositions mean to and with respectively instead of “with” and “on”.