Last week I told you that your German teacher taught you the Perfekt tense incorrectly or at the very least inaccurately. Now I am going to fix another problem that your teacher caused. If the Perfekt is used with “sein” when there is motion and two-way prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen) are accusative when there is motion, why do you almost always use the accusative case with the Wechselpräpositionen when you use “haben” as your helping verb in the Perfekt? There are times when the present perfect tense is used with a form of “sein”, which according to your German teacher means this verb is a motion verb, but you use a two-way preposition in the dative case, because there is no motion involved. Get ready, because I’m going to blow your mind.
If you would like a copy of this video script along with a worksheet and answer key to practice your knowledge, click here.
(Curious Antrim) Herr Lehrer, how do I know if a two-way preposition uses the accusative or dative case?
(Herr Lehrer) Simple. If the prepositional phrase indicates motion, you use accusative. If not, use dative.
(Curious Antrim) So for example: “Ich bin auf den Gehweg gelaufen.” means “I walked on the sidewalk.” The verb “laufen” is a motion verb, as you taught us, which means there is motion in this sentence, so we use the accusative case.
(Herr Lehrer) No. You mean to say “Ich bin auf DEM Gehweg gelaufen.”
(Curious Antrim) But the Perfekt uses “sein” when there is motion, so I used “sein” and the accusative case is used with the two-way prepositions when there is motion, so I used accusative.
(Herr Lehrer) What you said is that you walked from the street or somewhere else onto the sidewalk.
(Curious Antrim) Ok. But swimming is motion. So I can say “Ich bin in das Schwimmbecken geschwommen.”
(Herr Lehrer) No. “Ich bin IM Schwimmbecken geschwommen.”
(Curious Antrim) Ok. This is confusing. Maybe the problem is the motion verb. Let’s try this with a non-motion verb. “Ich habe mich an dem Tisch gesetzt.” No motion in the verb, so we use “haben” and therefore no motion in the prepositional phrase so we use dative.
(Herr Lehrer) No. You use the accusative, because there is motion.
(Curious Antrim) So why don’t we use “sein” in the Perfekt.
(Herr Lehrer) That’s just the way German works.
Real Herr Antrim: NO, IT ISN’T!
The first problem was cleared up last week. The rule is not “motion vs non-motion”, but rather “transitive vs intransitive”. The problem this week is similar. It isn’t about motion, it is about change of location or lack thereof. Let’s take a look at the following examples.
Ich bin auf der Autobahn gefahren. - I drove on the Autobahn (interstate/highway).
vs
Ich bin auf die Autobahn gefahren. - I drove onto the Autobahn (interstate/highway).
In the first sentence we were driving, which is an intransitive verb, because we don’t have a direct object, so we use “sein”, but we are not changing our location throughout this sentence. I am on the Autobahn in the beginning and I end the sentence still on the Autobahn. In the second sentence, the verb still uses “sein”, because there is still no direct object, but the action of the sentence moves me from not being on the Autobahn to being on the Autobahn. This change of location forces us to use the accusative case.
So the question we must ask ourselves is not necessarily directly related to the verb. Our question is whether or not the location described within the prepositional phrase is indicating a change in location or a constant location.
Ich schwimme im (in dem) Schwimmbecken. - I am swimming in the swimming pool.
In this sentence, the location of the action does not change. If you were to write this sentence with the accusative case, it would mean you can swim on land and you are swimming into the pool, which is ridiculous unless you are Chuck Norris.
Now let’s take a look at the commonly used verbs that your teacher probably told you require you to use the accusative or dative case, as the case may be… pun intended. Your teacher likely gave you examples like this:
Ich habe mich auf den Stuhl gesetzt. - I sat myself down on the chair.
Ich habe auf dem Stuhl gesessen. - I sat on the chair.
In the first one, I wasn’t sitting, but now I am. The change is indicated in the prepositional phrase with the accusative case. In the second sentence, I am already in the sitting position, which means I did not change location, so we use the dative case to indicate that the location does not change throughout the sentence.
Er hat das Buch in das Regal gestellt. - He put the book on the shelf.
Das Buch hat im Regal gestanden. - The book stood on the shelf.
Wir haben die Blätter auf den Tisch gelegt. - We laid the papers on the table.
Die Blätter haben auf dem Tisch gelegen. - The papers lay on the table.
Fun Fact of the Day: The differences between “lay” and “lie” and “legen” and “liegen” are the same differences in English as they are in German. “Lay” is a transitive verb, which requires a direct object, the same as “legen”. “Lie” is an intransitive verb, which will not use a direct object, the same as “liegen”.
(Herr Lehrer) AHA! I caught you! If intransitive verbs require “sein” in the Perfekt and “liegen” is an intransitive verb, as you just said, why doesn’t “liegen” take “sein” in the Perfekt? Don’t answer that, I know already. It is a non-motion verb, which is why it really needs “haben”! I was right!
Nice try, but no. In northern Germany, where most people consider “proper” German to come from, they do use “haben” with “liegen”, but in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland, they use “sein”. The reason textbooks and other resource materials use “haben” is because of this assumption that northern Germans speak more correctly than their southern counterparts and this infestation of the idea of motion vs non-motion for deciding the helping verb. Long story short: both are correct.
Back to the two-way prepositions. You probably understand the general idea of how to use these now, but let’s make things more confusing.
Ich habe das Blatt Papier auf den Tisch in dem Wohnzimmer gelegt. - I laid the piece of paper onto the table in the living room.
In this sentence we used both the accusative and dative cases with different two-way prepositions. The first one indicates a change in location for the piece of paper, which means we need the accusative case, but the second one is referring to the location of the table, which is not changing, so we use the dative case.
Ich bin mit meinem Hund in meinem Auto nach Chicago gefahren. - I drove to Chicago with my dog in my car.
Neither the dog nor I are leaving or entering the car during this sentence, which is why we use the dative case with “in meinem Auto”. The fact that the car is traveling to Chicago is not relevant for the location indicated by the prepositional phrase “in meinem Auto”.
Das Flugzeug ist über die Wolke geflogen. - The airplane flew over the cloud.
Das Flugzeug ist über der Wolke geflogen. - The airplane flew over the cloud.
I like sentences like this, because it shows you how precise the German language can be. In the first one, the airplane is at some point not over the cloud. Whether this means it started not over the cloud and ended over it or the plane started over the cloud and ended not over it or even started not over it and ended not over it, but in the middle it was over the cloud is not clear. In the second one, the airplane never leaves the position of being over the cloud.
Mein Bruder ist in den Bergen gewandert. - My brother hiked in the mountains.
Mein Bruder ist in die Berge gewandert. - My brother hiked into the mountains.
In the first one we used the dative case, because there is no change of location. Throughout the entire sentence, my brother is in the mountains. In the second one, he started not in the mountains and ended in the mountains, which is a change of location, which requires the accusative case.
Ich setze mich auf dem Tisch hin, da mein Stuhl schon auf dem Tisch ist. - I set myself down on the table, because my chair is already on the table.
In this sentence I purposefully confused you. The verb “hinsetzen” is usually used with the two-way preposition using the accusative case, but that is because the act of setting oneself down indicates a change of position from not sitting to sitting. In this sentence, however, the entire action of setting oneself down happens on top of the table, as the chair onto which the person is setting themselves is on the table. Of course this is an extreme example of the distinction between when to use the accusative and when to use the dative, but this it might help you to see things like this.
So the next time you are trying to figure out if a Wechselpräposition uses the accusative or dative case, ask yourself if you are trying to express a change in location with that preposition or not. If you are, use accusative. If not, use dative.
(Herr Lehrer) Yeah. That’s what I said! Accusative with motion and dative without.
Yeah, but not clearly enough that your students could understand what you were trying to say. (eye roll)
Do you want to learn more about the two-way prepositions? Click this link. Do you want a random video chosen just for you, click this link? If you want worksheets, video scripts and more, click this link and join me on Patreon. Das ist alles für heute. Danke fürs Zuschauen. Bis zum nächsten Mal. Tschüss.
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