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### The Directional Adverbs: hin and her

In German, direction is often described relative to the speaker's perspective. To express motion to or from a place, you will frequently use two highly common directional adverbs: **hin** and **her**.

- **hin** indicates motion *away* from the speaker (towards a destination).
- **her** indicates motion *towards* the speaker.

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### Into and Out of (ein and aus)

You can combine *hin* and *her* with prepositional prefixes to describe exactly how someone is moving relative to you. For example, add **ein** (in) or **aus** (out).

If you are inside a room and want someone to enter, they are coming *towards* you. You use **herein** (in towards speaker). If you are outside and telling someone to go inside, they are moving *away* from you. You use **hinein** (in away from speaker).

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Similarly, if you are outside and want someone to exit a house, they are coming towards you (**heraus**). If you are inside telling them to go outside, they are moving away (**hinaus**).

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### Up and Down (auf and unter)

The exact same logic applies to vertical movement. Depending on your location, you might tell someone to come down a floor to you (**herunter**) or go up the stairs away from you (**hinauf**).

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### To Here and To There (hierher and dorthin)

When talking about destinations with the adverbs *hier* (here) and *dort* (there), German strictly separates static location from motion. If there is movement to a place, you must combine these words with *hin* and *her*.

- **hierher**: to this place (motion towards "here")
- **dorthin**: to that place (motion towards "there")

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Directional adverbs (hin, her)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (der, die, das)

Indefinite articles (ein, eine)

Regular verbs and statement word order (ich -e, er -t)

The second person (du -st, Sie -en)

Yes/No questions

The verb 'to have' (habe, hast, hat)

Plural pronouns and regular verbs (wir, ihr, sie)

Plural 'to be' and 'to have' (sind, haben)

Plural nouns and the plural article (die)

Sentence negation (nicht)

Noun negation (kein, keine)

Question words (wer, was, wo, wie)

Numbers 0 to 12 (null, eins, zwei)

The accusative case (den, die, das)

Indefinite accusative articles (einen, keinen)

Direct object pronouns (mich, dich, ihn)

There is / there are (es gibt)

Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel changes: a to ä (er fährt)

Weather and conditions (es regnet)

First- and second-person possessives in the nominative (mein, dein, Ihr)

First- and second-person possessives in the accusative (meinen, deinen, Ihren)

Third-person and plural possessives (sein, ihr, unser, euer)

Possession with names (Annas Auto)

Demonstrative pronouns (dieser, diese, dieses)

Expressing preference (gern, lieber)

Asking about direction and origin (woher, wohin)

Expressing ability (können)

Polite requests (möchten)

Expressing intention (wollen)

Modal verbs of obligation and permission (müssen, dürfen)

Separable prefix verbs

Adverbs of frequency (immer, oft, manchmal, nie)

The Dative case and definite articles (dem, der, den)

Dative indefinite and negative articles (einem, einer, keinem)

Dative personal pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr...)

Dative verbs (helfen, danken, gefallen, schmecken)

Dative prepositions (aus, bei, mit, nach...)

Accusative prepositions (für, ohne, gegen)

Two-way prepositions for location (in, an, auf...)

Informal singular imperative (mach, komm)

Plural and formal imperative (macht, machen Sie)

Coordinating conjunctions (und, oder, aber, denn)

Simple past of sein and haben (war, hatte)

The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

Past tense: irregular verbs (ge-...-en)

The perfect tense: mixed verbs (gebracht, gekannt)

The perfect tense with sein (ist gegangen)

The perfect tense: separable verbs (eingekauft)

The perfect tense: inseparable and -ieren verbs (besucht, studiert)

Informal singular commands (mach, lern)

Numbers 13 to 20 (dreizehn to zwanzig)

Counting by tens to 100 (dreißig, vierzig)

Telling time (Uhr, halb, Viertel, vor, nach)

Numbers 21 to 99 (einundzwanzig, zweiunddreißig)

Greetings and farewells

Thank you, sorry and good wishes

Everyday replies

Numbers 100 to 1,000,000 (hundert, tausend...)

Becoming and getting (werden)

The impersonal pronoun (man)

Indefinite pronouns (jemand, niemand...)

Time sequence prepositions (vor, nach, bei)

Time span prepositions (von... bis, seit, für)

Adverbs of sequence (zuerst, dann, danach)

Two-way prepositions for direction (in, auf, an...)

Placement verbs (setzen, stellen, legen)

Months of the year (Januar, Februar)

The four seasons (Frühling, Sommer)

Time prepositions and indefinite pronouns (an, in, um)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)

Ordinals 20th and beyond (-ste, -sten)

Placement vs. location verbs (stellen vs. stehen)

Accusative reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich)

Accusative reflexive verbs (sich freuen)

Dative reflexive pronouns (mir, dir, sich)

Dative reflexive verbs (sich etwas merken)

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (-te)

Temporal prepositions (an, in, um)

Double objects with nouns

Double objects with pronouns

The modal verb for advice (sollen)

Simple past of modal verbs (musste, wollte...)

Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

Adverbial connectors of consequence (deshalb, darum...)

Subordinate clauses for statements (dass)

Subordinate clauses for reasons (weil)

Question	Answer
away	hin
We had no time yesterday, but we are going there today.	Wir hatten gestern keine Zeit, aber wir gehen heute hin.
Please do not go there!	Bitte gehen Sie nicht hin!
towards here	her
Please come here!	Kommt bitte her!
Where does this man come from?	Wo kommt dieser Mann her?
in (towards speaker)	herein
It is cold outside, come in!	Draußen ist es kalt, kommen Sie herein!
It was very cold. Come in quickly!	Es war sehr kalt. Kommt schnell herein!
in (away from speaker)	hinein
It is raining, so one goes inside.	Es regnet, also geht man hinein.
Please do not go into the room!	Geht bitte nicht in das Zimmer hinein!
out (towards speaker)	heraus
Please come out!	Kommen Sie bitte heraus!
The dog was in the house, but he runs out.	Der Hund war im Haus, aber er rennt heraus.
out (away from speaker)	hinaus
Go out into the garden!	Gehen Sie in den Garten hinaus!
The weather is nice, go outside!	Das Wetter ist schön, geht hinaus!
down (towards speaker)	herunter
The suitcase is heavy, bring it down!	Der Koffer ist schwer, bringen Sie ihn herunter!
Come down quickly, dinner is ready!	Kommt schnell herunter, das Abendessen ist fertig!
up (away from speaker)	hinauf
Go up into the bedroom!	Gehen Sie in das Schlafzimmer hinauf!
Carry the luggage up!	Tragt das Gepäck hinauf!
here / to this place (directional)	hierher
Bring the car here!	Bringen Sie das Auto hierher!
One gets here very fast.	Man kommt sehr schnell hierher.
there / to that place (directional)	dorthin
Are you driving there?	Fahrt ihr dorthin?
This bus does not drive there.	Dieser Bus fährt nicht dorthin.
at the back, behind	hinten
The suitcase is at the back.	Der Koffer ist hinten.
We are sitting at the back.	Wir sitzen hinten.
at the front, in front	vorne
The teacher is standing at the front.	Der Lehrer steht vorne.
The door is at the front.	Vorne ist die Tür.
inside, indoors	drinnen
Inside it is warm.	Drinnen ist es warm.
The children are playing indoors.	Die Kinder spielen drinnen.
there (over there, further away)	dort
The train station is over there.	Dort ist der Bahnhof.
We live over there.	Wir wohnen dort.

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