A small but stylistically loaded set of German prepositions governs the genitive case. They cluster around cause, contrast, time, and substitution — because of, despite, during, instead of — and a long tail of them belongs to formal written German. What makes them genuinely tricky at B2 is not the meanings but the register wobble: in careful writing the genitive is required, while in everyday speech Germans routinely swap in the dative. Knowing which case to produce when is the real skill, and it's a reliable marker of whether your German reads as educated.
The everyday genitive prepositions
These four show up constantly, including in speech:
| Preposition | Meaning | Example (genitive) |
|---|---|---|
| wegen | because of | wegen des Wetters |
| trotz | despite, in spite of | trotz der Kälte |
| während | during | während des Films |
| (an)statt | instead of | statt eines Briefes |
Wegen des schlechten Wetters bleiben wir heute zu Hause.
Because of the bad weather we're staying home today. — wegen + genitive (formal/written).
Trotz der Kälte sind wir spazieren gegangen.
Despite the cold, we went for a walk. — trotz + genitive.
Während des Films hat mein Handy geklingelt.
During the film my phone rang. — während + genitive.
Sie hat mir eine Nachricht statt eines Briefes geschickt.
She sent me a message instead of a letter. — statt + genitive.
The formal set
Beyond the everyday four, German has a wide register of genitive prepositions that belong almost exclusively to written, official, journalistic, and academic German. Using them correctly is what makes a text sound authoritative; using them in casual chat sounds stilted.
| Preposition | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|
| aufgrund | on account of, due to | (formal) |
| infolge | as a result of | (formal) |
| innerhalb | within (space/time) | (formal/neutral) |
| außerhalb | outside (of) | (formal/neutral) |
| mittels | by means of | (formal/academic) |
| laut | according to | (formal/journalistic) |
| angesichts | in view of, given | (formal) |
| hinsichtlich | with regard to | (academic) |
| zwecks | for the purpose of | (formal/bureaucratic) |
Aufgrund eines technischen Defekts fällt der Zug heute aus.
Due to a technical fault, the train is cancelled today. — aufgrund + genitive (formal/announcement).
Innerhalb einer Woche müssen Sie die Unterlagen einreichen.
You must submit the documents within a week. — innerhalb + genitive (formal/official).
Angesichts der hohen Kosten wurde das Projekt gestoppt.
In view of the high costs, the project was halted. — angesichts + genitive (formal/journalistic).
The masculine/neuter -(e)s ending
The genitive does something to the noun itself that the other cases don't: masculine and neuter nouns take an -(e)s ending in the singular. This is easy to forget because feminine and plural nouns don't change.
| masculine | feminine | neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | der Film | die Kälte | das Wetter |
| genitive | des Films | der Kälte | des Wetters |
Short one-syllable nouns usually take -es (des Mannes, des Kindes); longer nouns take -s (des Wetters, des Films). Feminine nouns get only the article change (der Kälte), and plurals just take the genitive article der (während der Ferien).
Wegen des Mannes vor mir habe ich nichts gesehen.
Because of the man in front of me I couldn't see anything. — masculine: des Mannes.
The register wobble: genitive in writing, dative in speech
Here is the insight that competitors skip, and the one that matters most at B2. After wegen, trotz, während (and to a lesser extent statt), spoken German very frequently swaps the genitive for the dative. You will hear wegen dem Wetter constantly — from native speakers, on the street, in casual messages. Formal writing rejects it.
Wegen dem Wetter bleiben wir zu Hause.
Because of the weather we're staying home. — dative (colloquial/spoken; avoid in writing).
Wegen des Wetters bleiben wir zu Hause.
Because of the weather we're staying home. — genitive (formal/written; the correct written form).
This is not random sloppiness — it's a register signal. The genitive marks the utterance as careful, educated, written; the dative marks it as relaxed and spoken. Both are "real" German, but they live in different worlds. The genitive-decline-in-spoken-German page traces why the case is retreating in speech.
There's also a structural escape hatch the dative provides. When a noun has no article and no adjective to carry a genitive ending, the genitive can't show itself, so even careful German falls back on the dative — most visibly in the plural:
Wegen Mängeln an der Bremse wurde das Auto zurückgerufen.
Due to defects in the brakes, the car was recalled. — bare plural noun → dative even in formal German.
laut — the special case
laut ("according to") is genuinely unsettled: both the genitive and the dative are accepted, even in careful writing, and you'll see both in newspapers.
Laut dem Bericht steigen die Mieten weiter.
According to the report, rents continue to rise. — laut + dative (very common, journalistic).
Laut des Berichts steigen die Mieten weiter.
According to the report, rents continue to rise. — laut + genitive (also accepted).
Both are standard German: the Duden lists the genitive and the dative for laut, with the dative more common in speech and the genitive more typical of careful writing — so neither is an error, and you can use whichever fits your register. With a bare noun, laut simply takes no visible ending at all: laut Gesetz (according to the law), laut Plan (according to plan). So laut is the one genitive preposition where you genuinely have a choice — don't agonize over it.
How this differs from English
English handles all of these with prepositional phrases that never change the following noun: "because of the weather," "despite the cold," "during the film." There is no case marking to get right, and no register split riding on it — "because of" is "because of" whether you're texting or drafting a contract. German bundles the meaning and a case requirement and a register signal into a single choice. So an English speaker has three things to track at once: the right preposition, the genitive ending (including the masc./neut. -(e)s), and the awareness that the dative substitute exists but should be avoided in writing. The most common English-speaker failure is to dodge the whole problem by avoiding the genitive entirely — which leaves your formal German sounding underpowered.
Common Mistakes
❌ wegen des Wetter
Incorrect — neuter noun must take the genitive -(e)s ending.
✅ wegen des Wetters
because of the weather
❌ Trotz dem Regen haben wir die Wanderung gemacht. (in einem formellen Text)
Incorrect in formal writing — trotz takes the genitive there; dem Regen is the spoken variant.
✅ Trotz des Regens haben wir die Wanderung gemacht.
Despite the rain we went on the hike. (formal)
❌ Während die Sitzung wurden viele Fragen gestellt.
Incorrect — während needs the genitive, so it's der Sitzung, not die Sitzung.
✅ Während der Sitzung wurden viele Fragen gestellt.
During the meeting, many questions were asked. (formal)
❌ Aufgrund dem Streik fahren keine Busse.
Incorrect — aufgrund is firmly genitive; dem Streik should be des Streiks.
✅ Aufgrund des Streiks fahren keine Busse.
Due to the strike, no buses are running. (formal)
❌ Sie nahm den Bus, anstatt das Fahrrad.
Incorrect — (an)statt governs the genitive: des Fahrrads.
✅ Sie nahm den Bus anstatt des Fahrrads.
She took the bus instead of the bike. (formal)
The pattern: forgetting the masc./neut. -(e)s, and letting the colloquial dative leak into writing. In any text you'd want a German reader to take seriously, default to the genitive and check the noun ending.
Key Takeaways
- Everyday genitive prepositions: wegen, trotz, während, (an)statt; the formal set adds aufgrund, infolge, innerhalb, außerhalb, mittels, laut, angesichts, hinsichtlich, zwecks.
- Masculine and neuter singular nouns take -(e)s in the genitive (des Wetters, des Mannes); feminine and plural change only the article.
- After wegen/trotz/während, the spoken dative (wegen dem Wetter) is common but rejected in writing — it's a register signal, not a free variant.
- Produce the genitive in any formal context; it's never wrong and always sounds educated.
- laut legitimately allows both genitive and dative; with bare nouns the case is invisible (laut Gesetz).
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Prepositions That Take the GenitiveB2 — The genitive-governing prepositions — wegen, während, trotz, statt and the formal set — plus the live register battle between genitive and colloquial dative.
- The Genitive CaseB1 — How German marks possession and relation with the genitive — its article forms, the -(e)s ending on masculine and neuter nouns, and why it follows the noun it modifies.
- The Decline of the Genitive in Spoken GermanC1 — How the spoken language replaces the genitive with von + dative and dative prepositions — and why the full genitive still rules formal writing.
- Spoken vs Written GermanB2 — The systematic grammatical split between spoken and written German — Perfekt vs Präteritum, von+dative vs genitive, parataxis and weil-V2, contractions and modal particles vs Nominalstil and Konjunktiv I — and the conceptual Nähe/Distanz dimension behind it.
- Genitive Chains and Formal Syntactic DevicesC2 — How formal German builds on the genitive — stacked genitive attributes, the subjective/objective ambiguity (die Liebe der Mutter), partitive and formal preposed genitives, and the verbs and adjectives that govern a genitive object.
- Genitive and Formal-Register ErrorsB2 — Why the genitive follows its noun (das Buch meines Vaters, not English-style possession), the masculine/neuter -(e)s you can't drop, and where formal writing demands the genitive that speech replaces with dative.