Answers
Jul 29, 2014 - 10:40 AM
Hi Jeff
The preposition "in" can be used in two different senses:
When we want to express that someone is "inside" or "at" something - so stationary - we use "in" plus dative (for a review see session 24 of level 1). One verb you can remember for this scenario is "sein" - to be. Here there is no movement. That's what you have in the first part of the sentence you gave us:
I am in the USA
Ich bin in den (dative) USA
When we want to express that someone is going "into" something - so movement - we use "in" plus accusative (for a review see session 5 of level 2). Possible verbs for this scenario would be "gehen" - to go, "fliegen" - to fly, "fahren" - to drive, etc. In the second part of your example we clearly have movement, so we need "in + accusative"
I’m going tomorrow to Switzerland.
Ich fliege morgen in die (accusative) Schweiz.
I hope this helps!
The preposition "in" can be used in two different senses:
When we want to express that someone is "inside" or "at" something - so stationary - we use "in" plus dative (for a review see session 24 of level 1). One verb you can remember for this scenario is "sein" - to be. Here there is no movement. That's what you have in the first part of the sentence you gave us:
I am in the USA
Ich bin in den (dative) USA
When we want to express that someone is going "into" something - so movement - we use "in" plus accusative (for a review see session 5 of level 2). Possible verbs for this scenario would be "gehen" - to go, "fliegen" - to fly, "fahren" - to drive, etc. In the second part of your example we clearly have movement, so we need "in + accusative"
I’m going tomorrow to Switzerland.
Ich fliege morgen in die (accusative) Schweiz.
I hope this helps!
Jul 30, 2014 - 08:09 PM
That helps a lot. But these cases are going to be the death of me. ;) Thanks.