Prepositions of Place and Direction | German Grammar

German organizes space around three questions, and getting your prepositions right means answering the correct one. Wo? asks where something is (location). Wohin? asks where it's going (direction). Woher? asks where it came from (origin). Each question pulls in its own set of prepositions, and the trickiest part is direction — because German splits the single English word "to" into three different prepositions depending on what kind of place you're heading to. This page pulls the whole system together; for the deeper case mechanics, see the wo/wohin/woher choosing page.

The three questions at a glance

Question	Asks about	Typical prepositions
wo?	location (static)	in, an, auf, bei, gegenüber, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen + dative
wohin?	direction (toward)	nach, zu, in + accusative, an + accusative, auf + accusative
woher?	origin (from)	aus, von

The two-way prepositions (in, an, auf, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen) appear in both the wo and wohin rows because they switch case: dative for location, accusative for direction. The fixed prepositions don't switch — bei is always location, aus and von are always origin.

wo? — being somewhere (location)

For static location, the two-way prepositions take the dative, and bei and gegenüber (always dative) join them.

Ich wohne in der Stadt, gleich neben dem Bahnhof.

I live in the city, right next to the station. — location → dative.

Heute arbeite ich bei einem Kunden in Frankfurt.

Today I'm working at a client's in Frankfurt. — bei, always dative.

Die Bäckerei ist gegenüber der Apotheke.

The bakery is opposite the pharmacy. — gegenüber + dative.

wohin? — the three-way split of "to"

This is the heart of the page. English uses one word, "to," for every destination: to Berlin, to the doctor, to the kitchen. German splits this into three, by destination type:

nach — for cities, countries without an article, and "home" (nach Hause).
zu — for people and named buildings/points treated as goals.
in + accusative — for entering an enclosed space, including countries with an article.

There is also an + accusative (going up to an edge/border: ans Meer, ans Fenster) and auf + accusative (the idiomatic auf-places: auf die Post, auf eine Party).

nach — cities, article-less countries, home

Nächste Woche fahre ich nach Hamburg.

Next week I'm going to Hamburg. — city → nach.

Wir fliegen im Juli nach Spanien.

We're flying to Spain in July. — country without article → nach.

Es ist spät, ich gehe jetzt nach Hause.

It's late, I'm going home now. — nach Hause, fixed phrase.

zu — people and named destinations

Heute Nachmittag gehe ich zu meiner Oma.

This afternoon I'm going to my grandma's. — a person → zu. (informal)

Ich muss noch zum Arzt und dann zur Post.

I still have to go to the doctor and then to the post office. — named destinations → zu; zum/zur contractions.

in + accusative — entering, and article-countries

Komm, wir gehen ins Wohnzimmer.

Come on, let's go into the living room. — entering an enclosed room → in + accusative.

Diesen Winter fahren wir in die Schweiz.

This winter we're going to Switzerland. — country WITH an article (die Schweiz) → in + accusative, never nach.

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The single most useful rule on this page: countries that carry an article — die Schweiz, die Türkei, die USA (pl.), der Iran — take in + accusative, not nach. So it's in die Schweiz, in die Türkei, in die USA. Article-less countries (Italien, Spanien, Deutschland) take nach.

woher? — where you came from (origin)

Origin splits two ways: aus for emerging from an enclosed space or naming where you belong (homeland, container, material), and von for a starting point of a movement or the person you got something from.

Sie kommt aus der Türkei, lebt aber seit Jahren in Berlin.

She's from Turkey but has lived in Berlin for years. — homeland → aus.

Wir kommen gerade vom Arzt.

We're just coming back from the doctor. — starting point of the trip → von; vom = von dem.

Hol bitte die Milch aus dem Kühlschrank.

Please get the milk out of the fridge. — out of an enclosed space → aus.

The pairing is symmetric: you go zu the doctor (wohin) and come von the doctor (woher); you go in the kitchen (wohin) and come aus the kitchen (woher). The aus-vs-von page handles the gray zone where both seem possible.

A complete wo / wohin / woher set for one place

To see the whole system fire at once, here is the same place — the post office — across all three questions:

Wo bist du? — Ich bin auf der Post.

Where are you? — I'm at the post office. (location → dative, auf der Post)

Wohin gehst du? — Ich gehe auf die Post.

Where are you going? — I'm going to the post office. (direction → accusative, auf die Post)

Woher kommst du? — Ich komme von der Post.

Where are you coming from? — I'm coming from the post office. (origin → von der Post)

Notice that die Post is one of the idiomatic auf-places (covered on the two-way meanings page), which is why location and direction both use auf and only the case changes, while origin switches to von.

The nach / zu / in contrast in one breath

These three are the destinations learners most often confuse, so here they are side by side for the same trip:

Ich fahre nach Köln, dort gehe ich zu meiner Tante, und morgen fahren wir zusammen in die Schweiz.

I'm going to Cologne, there I'll go to my aunt's, and tomorrow we'll go together to Switzerland. — nach (city), zu (person), in + accusative (article-country).

How this differs from English

English uses "to" for every destination and leaves the rest to context: "to Berlin," "to the doctor," "to the kitchen," "to Switzerland" — one word covers all of them. German refuses to do this. It forces you to classify the destination first: Is it a city or an article-less country? → nach. A person or a named point? → zu. An enclosed space or an article-country? → in + accusative. English speakers who reach for a single "to"-equivalent end up over-using zu (the most "to"-like word), producing errors like zu Berlin. The fix is to make the classification before you choose the preposition — destination type first, preposition second.

Common Mistakes

❌ Wir fahren zu Berlin.

Incorrect — cities take nach, not zu.

✅ Wir fahren nach Berlin.

We're going to Berlin.

❌ Im Sommer fahren wir nach der Schweiz.

Incorrect — die Schweiz has an article, so it takes in + accusative.

✅ Im Sommer fahren wir in die Schweiz.

In summer we're going to Switzerland.

❌ Die Kinder sind in die Schule und lernen.

Incorrect — they ARE at school (location), so it's dative: in der Schule.

✅ Die Kinder sind in der Schule und lernen.

The children are at school and studying.

❌ Ich gehe heute zu Hamburg.

Incorrect — a city is a destination for nach, not zu.

✅ Ich gehe heute nach Hamburg.

I'm going to Hamburg today.

❌ Sie kommt von Italien.

Incorrect — a country of origin/homeland takes aus, not von.

✅ Sie kommt aus Italien.

She's from Italy.

The recurring error is collapsing German's three "to"s back into English's one, and confusing the location (in der Schule) with the direction (in die Schule) — exactly the wo/wohin split that the two-way case rule governs.

Key Takeaways

Build everything on three questions: wo? (location, dative), wohin? (direction, accusative for two-way preps), woher? (origin).
"To" splits three ways: nach (cities, article-less countries, nach Hause), zu (people, named points), in + accusative (entering enclosed spaces and article-countries).
Article-countries take in + accusative: in die Schweiz, in die Türkei, in die USA — never nach.
Origin splits two ways: aus (homeland, enclosed space, material) vs. von (starting point, person).
Classify the destination first, then pick the preposition — don't translate the single English "to."

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