Prepositions That Take the Dative

German prepositions don't all behave the same way: each one demands a particular case from the noun that follows it. One group is wonderfully predictable — a closed, fixed set of prepositions that always take the dative, no matter what the sentence means. Once you have memorized the list, you never have to think about the case again: see one of these prepositions, and the noun after it is dative. This is one of the easiest wins in German grammar, which is why teachers turn the list into a song or a chant.

The list to memorize

The core dative prepositions are:

aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu — plus gegenüber, außer, entgegen.

The first seven are by far the most frequent and are the ones drilled in beginner courses. A common German-class chant strings them together — aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu — and English-speaking learners often use the mnemonic phrase "A B M N S V Z" or simply rehearse the seven in that rhythm until they stick.

The case does not depend on motion

This is the single most important thing to understand about these prepositions, especially if you've already met the two-way prepositions (an, auf, in, über and friends), which switch between accusative and dative depending on whether there is movement. The pure dative prepositions do not play that game. They take the dative always, whether the sentence describes movement or not.

In mit dem Bus there's plenty of motion, and in von der Arbeit there's motion away from a place — yet both stay dative, because mit and von are pure dative prepositions. The motion test is irrelevant here. That is exactly why this list is worth drilling separately from the two-way prepositions: it removes the case decision entirely.

(Nach Hause, "to home / homewards," is a fixed expression — note the -e — and zu Hause means "at home." Both are everyday phrases worth memorizing whole.)

One example for each

And with pronouns, where the dative form is audible:

Note mit mir, bei ihr, von ihm — the dative pronouns mir, ihr, ihm are obligatory after these prepositions.

Obligatory contractions

Several of these prepositions fuse with the dative article in everyday German. With the masculine/neuter dative dem and the feminine dative der, the contractions below are standard and, in neutral speech, expected rather than optional:

You would sound stilted saying zu dem Bäcker in casual conversation; zum Bäcker is the natural form. (You can keep the full form zu dem when you want to stress "to that specific one," but that is a marked, emphatic use.) The full set of contraction rules — including the accusative ones like im and ins — lives on the contractions page.

The nach/zu split and the aus/von split

The list contains two pairs that English collapses into single words, so they cause predictable confusion.

nach vs. zu — both can mean "to"

Both nach and zu can translate the English "to (a destination)," but they divide the territory by type of destination:

• nach is used for cities, countries, and continents without an article, and for the compass directions: nach Berlin, nach Deutschland, nach Norden.
• zu is used for people and for specific places/buildings (often with an article): zum Arzt, zur Schule, zu meiner Schwester.

So you fly nach Italien (country, no article) but go zum Zahnarzt (a person/place with an article). The handful of countries that do take an article (like die Schweiz) break the nach pattern and use in instead — in die Schweiz — but that is a small exception list. The nach vs. zu page goes deeper.

aus vs. von — both can mean "from"

• aus means "out of" — coming from inside something, including your origin (the place you're from): aus dem Haus, aus der Schweiz, aus Versehen.
• von means "from" in the sense of a starting point, a source, or "of/by": von der Arbeit, von meiner Tante, ein Brief von ihm.

The rule of thumb: if you could say "out of" in English, use aus; for a starting point or a giver/source, use von. Ich komme aus Köln (I'm from Cologne — my origin) but Ich komme gerade von der Arbeit (I'm coming from work — my starting point right now).

How this differs from English

English prepositions don't change the form of the following noun at all — "with the man," "with him," same noun either way. German makes the preposition reach into the noun phrase and set its case. For these particular prepositions the case is fixed, which is actually easier than English in one respect: there is no decision to make once you know the list. The hard part is purely the splits English doesn't draw — one English "to" covering both nach and zu, one English "from" covering both aus and von. Those are vocabulary distinctions dressed up as grammar.

Common Mistakes

Mit is a pure dative preposition, so masculine der Bus becomes dative dem Bus. English speakers often default to the accusative because the bus feels like the "thing being used."

After von, masculine der Freund must become dative dem Freund — and in speech, vom Freund.

Cities and countries without an article take nach, not zu. Zu is for people and specific buildings.

Your origin — the place you come out of — takes aus. Von would suggest a starting point you've just left.

Key Takeaways

• Memorize the closed list: aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu (plus gegenüber, außer, entgegen). The noun after them is always dative.
• The case is fixed regardless of motion — unlike the two-way prepositions.
• Use the obligatory contractions beim, vom, zum, zur in normal speech.
• nach = cities/countries without an article and directions; zu = people and specific places.
• aus = "out of" / origin; von = starting point, source, "of/by."