Voted Best Answer
Apr 05, 2014 - 02:58 PM
Hi James: Children born in Germany hear German from the day they are born and are speaking German for roughly four years before they start "learning" German in school. Thus their choice of which preposition to use is based mostly on what sounds right while those of us who are learning German without having heard it first search for a rule. I am no expert at German, or I would not be taking Fluenz German, but I do have some experience with teaching English as a second language where prepositions pose problems too. Try this: If you are wanting to translate "at" into German try saying the sentence with "in" in place of "at." If it sounds OK translate "at" as "in." If it sounds awkward or wrong translate "at" as "an." Some examples: 1) It's 11am so I could say: My son is at school learning German, or My son is in school learning German. Either covey the meaning so translate "at" as "in", i.e. "in der Schule." 2) I'ts 8am and my son is waiting for the school bus to pick him up so I could say: My son is waiting at the bus stop, but I would never say My son is waiting in the bus stop, so translate "at" as "an," i.e. "an der Bushaltestelle." 3) I am meeting a client at my office; I am meeting a client in my office. "In" substitutes for "at" so translate "at" as "in," "in meinem Büro." 4) There is a stop sign at the corner of Park and Elm. There is a stop sign in the corner of Park and Elm. The second sentence sounds wrong so translate "at" and "an" i.e "an der Ecke." This works with places you could be at or in but not with, say, time. At six o'clock would be translated as neither "an" or "in" but "um," i.e." um sechs Uhr." My English-German dictionary list the following words as translations for at: an, auf, aus, biei, für, in, mit, nach, über, um, von, vor, and zu. "Gluck auf!" Fred