Questions & Answers about Falls es dunkel wird, warten wir unterhalb der Klippe.
Why do we use unterhalb here instead of just unter?
unterhalb specifically means 'at a lower elevation than' or 'below the level of' a boundary, like on a landscape. unter usually means physically underneath or covered by something. The speakers are waiting at the base or lower level of the cliff, not necessarily in a cave directly underneath the rock.
What case does unterhalb trigger, and how can we see it here?
Like the other spatial prepositions in this lesson (such as oberhalb or jenseits), unterhalb requires the Genitive case. You can see this in der Klippe, which is the feminine Genitive form of the noun die Klippe (the cliff).
Could I use wenn instead of falls at the beginning of the sentence?
Yes, but falls is more precise. While wenn can mean either 'if' or 'when', falls strictly means 'in case' or 'in the event that'. Using falls removes any ambiguity and often expresses a bit more uncertainty about whether the condition (getting dark) will actually happen.
Why does the second part of the sentence start with the verb warten?