30th July, 2010

zum, zur, am, ans, im, ins - contracted prepositions

posted 1 year ago

Recently, someone asked me a question about the usage of “zum”.

But there are more prepositions of place in German that work exactly like “zu” = preposition of place “to”; an = prep. of place “at” / “by”; in = prep. of place “in” / “into”

The general rule is: You can contract the preposition with the following direct article. The direct article is either “der” (feminine, dative) or “dem” (masculine and neuter, dative) or “die” (feminine, accusative), “den” (masculine, accusative) or “das” (masculine, accusative).

German prepositions trigger certain cases. The ones in the subject line either trigger the dative or the accusative.

zu + definite article “der” (fem., dative) -> zur

zu + def. article “dem” (masc./neut., dat.) -> zum

an + def. art. “dem” (masc./neut., dat.) -> am

an + def. art. “das” (neut., acc.) -> ans

in + def. art. “dem” (masc./neut., dat.) -> im

in + def. art. “das” (neut., acc.) -> ins

Jeez! This must have been confusing! :-O

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