Breakdown of Bitte folgen Sie mir zum Eingang.
Questions & Answers about Bitte folgen Sie mir zum Eingang.
In this sentence, Sie is capitalized because it is the formal “you” (2nd person singular or plural), not “she”.
- sie (lowercase) can mean she or they, depending on context.
- Sie (uppercase) with a verb conjugated like sie (they) is the formal “you”.
So folgen Sie means “(you, formal) follow”, addressed politely to one or more people. It does not mean “she follows” here.
Yes. Folgen Sie is the formal imperative of folgen.
German has different imperative forms:
- du (informal singular): Folge mir! – “Follow me!”
- ihr (informal plural): Folgt mir! – “(You all) follow me!”
- Sie (formal singular/plural): Folgen Sie mir! – “Please follow me.”
The Sie-imperative is formed with:
> inflected verb + Sie
> Folgen Sie …, Kommen Sie …, Nehmen Sie Platz …
So Bitte folgen Sie mir zum Eingang. is a polite instruction: “Please follow me to the entrance.”
Because folgen always takes the dative case, not the accusative.
- mir = “to me” (dative)
- mich = “me” (accusative)
Many English speakers want to say folgen Sie mich, but that is incorrect. With folgen, you must use dative:
- Folgen Sie mir. – Follow me.
- Ich folge Ihnen. – I’m following you (formal).
- Sie folgt ihm. – She is following him.
Think of it as “Please follow to me” in German structure, even though in English we just say “follow me.”
Bitte is a polite softener, similar to “please” in English.
- Without it: Folgen Sie mir zum Eingang. – Still polite (because of Sie), but more direct.
- With it at the start: Bitte folgen Sie mir zum Eingang. – Polite request.
- With it later: Folgen Sie mir bitte zum Eingang. – Same meaning; just a different emphasis.
Bitte isn’t grammatically required, but using it makes the instruction sound more courteous, especially in customer-service or formal contexts.
Yes, you can move bitte, and the meaning stays basically the same:
- Bitte folgen Sie mir zum Eingang.
- Folgen Sie mir bitte zum Eingang.
- Folgen Sie mir zum Eingang, bitte.
All are polite. Differences are subtle, mostly in rhythm and emphasis:
- At the start (Bitte folgen Sie …) sounds like a clear, polite request.
- In the middle (… mir bitte …) feels slightly softer and more conversational.
- At the end (… zum Eingang, bitte) can sound like adding “please” after the instruction, similar to English.
In everyday speech, all three are acceptable.
Zum is a contraction of zu dem:
- zu = to
- dem = the (dative, masculine/neuter)
- zu + dem → zum
Eingang is masculine (der Eingang), and after zu you need the dative:
- zu + dem Eingang → zum Eingang
Using zu dem Eingang is grammatically correct, just more formal and less common in speech. In most everyday contexts, Germans naturally use the contraction zum Eingang.
Good observation; the rules can be confusing.
There are two different ideas here:
Two-way prepositions (an, auf, in, etc.)
- Movement into/onto something → accusative
- Location (where?) → dative
Example: - Ich gehe in den Eingang. – I go into the entrance. (accusative)
- Ich bin im Eingang. – I am in the entrance. (dative)
Zu is different.
Zu always takes the dative, even with movement:- Ich gehe zum Eingang. – I go to the entrance. (movement, but still dative)
- Ich fahre zur Schule. – I drive to school. (zu + der Schule → zur, also dative)
So:
Movement + zu → dative, which is why you get zum Eingang, not in den Eingang.
They all use the idea of “to(wards) the entrance,” but with different nuances:
zum Eingang
- Neutral and most common when you mean “to the entrance” as a destination point.
- Doesn’t specify whether you actually go into the doorway or just to it.
an den Eingang
- Literally “to (up to) the entrance.”
- More specific: movement towards the boundary or edge (up to the entrance area).
- Less common in everyday speech for this purpose; you’d more often hear zum Eingang.
in den Eingang
- “Into the entrance.”
- Focus on entering inside the entrance area (crossing the threshold).
In normal guiding situations (at a store, museum, office), zum Eingang is the natural choice: “to the entrance.”
Using du (informal singular), the imperative changes:
- Bitte folge mir zum Eingang. – to one person you know well (friend, child).
- Without bitte: Folg mir zum Eingang. (colloquial: often Folg mir rather than Folge mir in speech)
Key changes:
- folgen Sie → folge (du-imperative)
- Sie → du (but du is usually omitted in the imperative: Folge mir, not Du folge mir)
Folgen by itself is not a separable verb; it’s just a normal verb.
- folgen – to follow
- Present: ich folge, du folgst, er folgt, wir folgen, ihr folgt, sie folgen
A separable verb would have a prefix that can move to the end in main clauses, like nachfolgen (to succeed, come after):
- Er folgt mir. – He follows me. (no split)
- Er folgt ihm nach. – He follows after him. (nach separates)
In Bitte folgen Sie mir zum Eingang., there is no separable prefix; folgen stays together.
- der Eingang = the entrance (as a place/area where you enter a building or space).
- die Tür = the door (the actual door panel/doorway).
- die Eingangstür = the entrance door, specifically the door at the main entrance.
So:
- zum Eingang – to the entrance area (could include doors, hallway, etc.).
- zur Tür – to the door (one specific door).
- zur Eingangstür – to the entrance door.
In many service contexts (shop, museum, office), zum Eingang is used because the whole entrance zone is relevant, not just a specific door leaf.
Rough pronunciation (using English approximations):
folgen: [ˈfɔlɡən]
- fo like “fo” in “follow”, but shorter and with an “o” as in “off”.
- lg: both consonants spoken; the g is a hard g (like in “go”).
- en: a weak “uhn” sound; -en endings are not strongly pronounced.
Eingang: [ˈaɪnɡaŋ]
- Ei like “eye”.
- ng as in “song”.
- Final -ang is like “ung” in “sung,” but with an a closer to “u” in “cut” for many English speakers.
So roughly: “FOHL-guhn AYEHN-gahng”, but shorter and crisper than English syllables.