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Maybe this post should be titled “Those Studying Languages that Don’t Involve Grammatical Case Changes are Lucky”… In a previous post, I’ve warned about the intimidating fact that, in many languages, prepositions signal that following words need to be placed in particular grammatical cases. Which grammatical case belongs to which preposition in any given language is usually unpredictable and involves pure memorization. So all is ok with the world, right? Memorize which grammatical case is needed after which preposition and now you are one step closer to remaining alive during any undercover CIA mission that involves the German language.
But as much as the previous post made you sweat and shudder, it gets worse….much worse…….the only thing that I can think of that is worse is this (between :50 and 1:05 is the highlight). Introducing…….to escalate your prepositional confusion…..the Two-Way Preposition! A confusing feature of the German language, these prepositions demand different grammatical cases depending on how they function in different sentences. If these German prepositions involves motion, you should be prepared to use the accusative case afterwards, however, if these same prepositions are used in a manner without motion, you will use the dative. For example, consider the German preposition unter. One can crawl unter the table, or one’s dog can be sitting unter the table. In the first case, the preposition signals movement, and you would have to make sure the table and all associated articles are in the accusative case. Ditto with the dative case for the second use of unter.
So now you are aware that certain prepositions in German, called two-way prepositions, involve the use of either the accusative or the dative case depending on whether or not there is motion involved. Your awareness of this concept, and the resulting fear that it has induced, is the sole purpose of this post. Nevertheless, I’m sure you would like to see examples of these prepositions and maybe even see/hear the changes in articles/nouns displaying the use of different cases. I know I already sent you to one chilling YouTube link. But just in case that experience hasn’t burnt this new concept into your mind yet, allow me to present you with this….. The acting, manner of delivery, quality of video, etc. should be enough to make the two-way preposition unforgettable…. (is there a sarcasm font?)
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