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Practice German Prepositions and Cases

German prepositions are notoriously slippery — each one governs a specific case, and many have meanings that don't map cleanly to English. These free games drill the right preposition–case pairing in real sentence contexts.

Fixed accusative: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um. Fixed dative: aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu. Two-way (Wechselpräpositionen): an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen — accusative for motion toward, dative for static location. Genitive (mostly formal): während, trotz, wegen, statt.

Prepositions are hard to learn from a chart alone because so many uses are idiomatic. What tends to work best is high-volume contextual exposure, which the game format below compresses into a few minutes a day.

Frequently asked questions

Which German prepositions take the accusative case?

The fixed-accusative prepositions are durch, für, gegen, ohne, um (memorise as DOGFU or 'durch-für-gegen-ohne-um'). They consistently take the accusative.

Which German prepositions take the dative case?

The fixed-dative prepositions are aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu (often memorised as 'aus-bei-mit-nach-seit-von-zu'). They consistently take the dative.

What are German two-way prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen)?

Nine prepositions — an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen — take the accusative when there's motion toward a destination (ich gehe in die Küche) and the dative when describing static location (ich bin in der Küche).