Place adverbs answer where? — but German asks that question in three different ways, and the answers differ accordingly. English makes do with here and there for almost everything. German splits the same space into three: wo? ("where" — a static location), wohin? ("where to" — a destination), and woher? ("where from" — an origin). On top of that, German encodes direction relative to the speaker with the particles hin (away from the speaker) and her (toward the speaker). These are distinctions English simply doesn't make, which is exactly why they need a dedicated page.
The static place adverbs
Start with the easy ones: adverbs that name a fixed location, answering wo?
| Adverb | Meaning |
|---|---|
| hier | here (near the speaker) |
| da | there / here (general, context-dependent) |
| dort | there (specific, often more distant) |
| oben / unten | up(stairs) / down(stairs), above / below |
| vorne / hinten | at the front / at the back |
| links / rechts | on the left / on the right |
| drinnen / draußen | inside / outside |
| überall / nirgendwo (nirgends) | everywhere / nowhere |
Deine Schlüssel liegen da, auf dem Tisch.
Your keys are there, on the table. (static location)
Hier ist es viel zu laut, lass uns nach draußen gehen.
It's far too loud here, let's go outside.
A word on da: it is the most flexible of the three. It can mean "there" (pointing somewhere) or "here" (a vaguer "right here / present"), and context fills in the rest. Hier is firmly close to the speaker; dort is firmly more distant and specific. Da floats in the middle.
The three-way question: wo, wohin, woher
This is the heart of the page. German obligatorily distinguishes:
- wo? — location ("where at?") → answered by hier, da, dort
- wohin? — destination ("where to?") → answered by hierhin, dahin, dorthin
- woher? — origin ("where from?") → answered by von hier, daher, von dort
English collapses all three into "where" plus a stray "to" or "from." German keeps them strictly apart, and using the wrong one is immediately noticeable.
Wo bist du? — Ich bin hier.
Where are you? — I'm here. (location: wo / hier)
Wohin gehst du? — Ich gehe dorthin.
Where are you going? — I'm going there. (destination: wohin / dorthin)
Woher kommst du? — Ich komme daher.
Where are you coming from? — I'm coming from over there. (origin: woher / daher)
The key insight: when movement toward a goal is involved, you cannot use the bare hier or dort. You need the directional form — hierhin, dahin, dorthin. Saying Ich gehe hier to mean "I'm going here" is wrong in the way that English "I'm going at home" is wrong: it confuses a location with a destination.
hin and her: direction relative to the speaker
Now the part with no English parallel. German marks which way movement runs relative to the speaker:
- hin = movement away from the speaker (toward some other point)
- her = movement toward the speaker (from somewhere else)
Think of the speaker as the origin of an arrow. Hin points away; her points back home. This is deixis — meaning anchored to where the speaker stands.
Geh mal hin und schau, was da los ist.
Go over there and see what's going on. (hin — away from me toward the scene)
Komm her, ich zeige dir etwas.
Come here, I'll show you something. (her — toward me)
The same contrast shows up in the question words: wohin ("where to," movement away) versus woher ("where from," movement that originates elsewhere). And it powers a whole set of compounds:
| hin- (away) | her- (toward) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hinein | herein | in (going in, away / coming in, toward) |
| hinaus | heraus | out |
| hinauf | herauf | up |
| hinunter | herunter | down |
| dorthin | hierher | (to) there / (to) here |
The logic is consistent: Komm herein! ("Come in!") invites someone toward the speaker who is already inside; Geh hinein! ("Go in!") sends someone away from the speaker into a space. The difference is purely about where the speaker stands.
Komm herein, es ist kalt draußen!
Come in, it's cold outside! (the speaker is inside — movement toward them)
Er ging hinein und schloss die Tür.
He went in and closed the door. (movement away from the speaker)
Colloquial fusions: rein, raus, rauf, runter
In everyday spoken German, the hin-/her- compounds get clipped into short fused forms that lose the directional distinction. (informal):
| Full form | Colloquial | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hinein / herein | rein | in |
| hinaus / heraus | raus | out |
| hinauf / herauf | rauf | up |
| hinunter / herunter | runter | down |
Komm rein, mach's dir gemütlich!
Come in, make yourself comfortable! (informal — rein for herein)
Kannst du bitte schnell runtergehen und die Tür aufmachen?
Can you quickly go down and open the door? (informal — runter for hinunter)
These short forms are everywhere in casual speech and texting, and they no longer signal hin versus her — rein covers both "in toward me" and "in away from me." In careful or written German, restore the full hinein/herein etc. (formal/written). Learners should produce the full forms in writing and recognise the clipped ones in speech.
Putting it together
Real sentences often combine a static frame with a directional move. Watch how the choice tracks the meaning:
Das Café ist da vorne links, wir müssen nur noch ein Stück dahin laufen.
The café is up ahead on the left; we just have to walk there a bit more. (da vorne links = location, dahin = direction)
Stell die Vase nicht dorthin, dort steht sie viel zu nah am Rand.
Don't put the vase there; it's standing far too close to the edge there. (dorthin = where to put it, dort = where it then stands)
In the second example, the same scene uses dorthin for the act of placing (destination) and dort for the resulting position (location) — a perfect illustration of why German keeps the two apart.
Common Mistakes
❌ Wohin gehst du? — Ich gehe hier.
Incorrect — 'hier' is a location; a destination needs the -hin form.
✅ Wohin gehst du? — Ich gehe hierhin.
Where are you going? — I'm going here / over here.
Movement to a goal requires hierhin / dahin / dorthin, never the bare hier / da / dort.
❌ Komm hin, ich zeige dir etwas.
Incorrect — movement toward the speaker takes her, not hin.
✅ Komm her, ich zeige dir etwas.
Come here, I'll show you something.
Hin points away from the speaker. To call someone toward you, use her (komm her).
❌ Geh herein in den Garten!
Incorrect — sending someone away from you uses hin-, so hinaus/hinein, not herein.
✅ Geh hinaus in den Garten!
Go out into the garden!
If you are inside and sending someone out and away, the direction is hinaus (away from you), not the toward-you herein.
❌ Woher fährst du? — Ich fahre nach Berlin.
Incorrect — woher asks for origin; 'nach Berlin' is a destination (wohin).
✅ Wohin fährst du? — Ich fahre nach Berlin.
Where are you driving to? — I'm driving to Berlin.
Woher = "where from." A destination like nach Berlin answers wohin, not woher.
❌ Bitte komm rein in deinem Bewerbungsschreiben zum Punkt.
Wrong register — rein is colloquial; this is a metaphor and the sentence is awkward besides.
✅ Bitte komm herein und setz dich.
Please come in and have a seat.
The clipped rein/raus/rauf/runter are (informal). In writing and formal speech, use the full herein, hinaus, hinauf, hinunter.
Key Takeaways
- German splits "where" three ways: wo? (location → hier, da, dort), wohin? (destination → hierhin, dahin, dorthin), woher? (origin → von hier, daher, von dort).
- Movement to a goal needs the -hin form; a fixed spot takes the bare adverb.
- hin = away from the speaker; her = toward the speaker. This deixis has no English equivalent.
- The directional compounds pair up: hinein/herein, hinaus/heraus, hinauf/herauf, hinunter/herunter.
- The clipped rein, raus, rauf, runter are (informal) and lose the hin/her distinction — use the full forms in writing.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Adverbs: OverviewA2 — What German adverbs are, why manner adverbs are just the bare adjective (no -ly), and the main categories — time, place, manner, degree, frequency, and sentence adverbs — none of which decline.
- wo, wohin, woher (Location vs Direction)A2 — German splits English 'where' into three question words — wo (location), wohin (direction to), woher (origin) — and the choice is tied directly to case and the aus/nach system.
- wo vs wohin vs woherA2 — How German splits English 'where' into three: wo for location, wohin for direction toward, woher for origin — and how each fixes the case of the answer.
- Prepositions of Place and DirectionB1 — The full system of location, direction, and origin in German — built around wo / wohin / woher and the three-way split of English 'to'.
- Choosing Accusative or Dative: The Motion Test in DepthB1 — Why the two-way case depends on crossing into a location versus acting within it — and how verb-governed prepositions override the rule entirely.