German Adverbial Phrases - Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional Phrases

A prepositional phrase consists of a nominal phrase and an adposition (a preposition, postposition, or circumposition). The case of the nominal phrase can be accusative or dative. Some prepositions always take the accusative case and some always take the dative case. Students usually memorize these because the difference may not be intuitive. A third group of prepositions, called two way prepositions, take either the accusative case or the dative case depending on the phrase's exact meaning. If the statement describes movement across a boundary then the phrase is accusative. Other situations, including movement within a confined area, take the dative case. For example:

Ich schlafe im Haus. (dative case) ("I sleep inside the house.")

Ich laufe ins Haus. (accusative case) ("I run into the house.")

Ich laufe im Haus. (dative case) ("I run within the house.")

Note that prepositions do not always have a locative meaning; they can also be modal or temporal adverbs, for example.

Prepositional phrases, being adverbial, may be used to describe actions and adjectives. They can also be attributes of a nominal phrase.

Ich gehe ins Haus ("I go into the house")

(Eis ist) während der Sommerzeit begehrt ("ice-cream is much sought-after in the summertime")

In some cases, the preposition and the article of the nominal phrase may or must elide together. This is similar to Italian.

NOT von dem Himmel BUT vom Himmel