Accusative prepositions: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um
A small, fixed set of German prepositions always takes the accusative case — learn the five as a chant and the case follows automatically.
Some German prepositions always take the accusative, no matter what. The core five at A1 are:
- durch — through (durch den Park — through the park)
- für — for (für dich — for you)
- gegen — against, around (gegen die Wand — against the wall)
- ohne — without (ohne den Schlüssel — without the key)
- um — around, at (um den Tisch — around the table)
Because the case is fixed, you never have to think about it: after any of these, the article and any pronoun go into the accusative (der → den, du → dich). Learn the five as a rhythmic chant — durch–für–gegen–ohne–um — and the endings take care of themselves.
Examples
Das Geschenk Grammatical analysisBase form seinPerson3rd person singular (er/sie/es)TensePräsens (present)Checked deterministically before build für Grammatical analysisBase form duCaseAkkusativ (accusative)NumberSingular (singular)Person2nd person singular (du)Checked deterministically before build.
The gift is for you.
Grammatical analysisBase form wirCaseNominativ (nominative)NumberPlural (plural)Person1st person plural (wir)Checked deterministically before build gehen durch Grammatical analysisBase form derCaseAkkusativ (accusative)Gendermaskulin (masculine)NumberSingular (singular)Checked deterministically before build Grammatical analysisBase form ParkCaseAkkusativ (accusative)Gendermaskulin (masculine)NumberSingular (singular)Checked deterministically before build.
We walk through the park.
Common mistakes
für always takes the accusative, so the pronoun is dich, not the dative dir.
Related topics
Practice
Das Geschenk ist für ___.
Wir gehen durch ___ Park.