Dativ prepositions

A small set of German prepositions always requires the noun phrase that follows them to be in the dative case, regardless of the verb or the meaning of the sentence. These prepositions are: aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu, gegenüber. Because the case is fixed by the preposition itself, you do not need to analyse the sentence structure — seeing one of these words is enough to know that dative endings follow.

• aus — origin or material: «Sie kommt aus der Schweiz.» (She comes from Switzerland.)

• bei — location near someone or at a place of work/business: «Er arbeitet bei dem Bäcker.» (He works at the bakery.)

• mit — accompaniment or means: «Ich fahre mit dem Bus.» (I travel by bus.)

• nach — direction to cities/countries (no article) or sequence: «Wir fahren nach Berlin.»

• seit — duration from a point in the past up to now: «Ich lerne seit einem Jahr Deutsch.» (I have been learning German for a year.)

• von — origin, possession, or the agent in passive constructions: «Das ist ein Geschenk von meiner Mutter.» (That is a gift from my mother.)

• zu — direction to a person or place: «Ich gehe zu dem Arzt.» (I am going to the doctor.)

• gegenüber — opposite or across from: «Die Bank ist gegenüber dem Bahnhof.» (The bank is opposite the station.)

The definite article changes form in the dative. The table below shows the dative article forms alongside the nominative forms for comparison.

The indefinite article follows the same pattern: ein → einem (masculine/neuter) and eine → einer (feminine). In the plural, nouns that do not already end in -n or -s add -n: «Kinder» → «mit den Kindern».

• Using accusative endings after mit, nach, or zu.

  These prepositions never take the accusative. A common mistake is writing «mit den Bus» (accusative plural form used wrongly for a singular masculine noun) instead of the correct «mit dem Bus». Whenever you see one of the eight dative prepositions, the article must shift to the dative form — no exceptions.

• Forgetting the plural dative -n on the noun.

  In the dative plural, the noun itself must end in -n. Writing «mit den Kinder» is incorrect; the noun «Kinder» must become «Kindern». The same rule applies to any plural noun that does not already end in -n or -s: «Freunde» → «mit den Freunden».