A2 · Prepositions
Coming from: aus and von
aus Deutschland, vom Arzt
aus if you were inside it, von if you were merely at it — the mirror image of in and zu.
Answering woher — where somebody or something has come from — German uses aus or von, both with the dative. Aus is for a place you were inside: aus dem Haus, aus der Schweiz, aus Berlin. Von is for a place you were at, and for people: vom Arzt, von der Arbeit, von meiner Schwester.
The split mirrors the outward journey exactly. You go in a building and come aus it; you go zu a person and come von them. Learning the two directions as pairs is faster than learning four prepositions.
Aus also names the material something is made of — aus Holz, aus Glas, aus Baumwolle — and that use has nothing to do with movement. It is the same idea one step further: the object came out of that material.
Die Form
| aus + Dativ, von innen | aus dem Haus |
| aus + Herkunft | Ich komme aus Spanien. |
| aus + Material | ein Tisch aus Holz |
| von + Dativ, von außen | vom Bahnhof, von der Arbeit |
| von + Personen | von meinem Bruder |
| seit, ab | seit gestern, ab Montag |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
aus is used for a place you were inside.
Sie kommt gerade aus dem Kino.She has just come out of the cinema.
A country or a home town takes aus.
Ich komme aus Österreich.I am from Austria.
von is used for a place you were at and for people.
Ich komme gerade vom Zahnarzt.I have just come from the dentist.
aus also names the material.
Die Schale ist aus Glas.The bowl is glass.
Genauer hingesehen
The four directions as two pairs
German marks direction in three ways and each has a matching return. Going into something is in plus accusative and coming out is aus plus dative. Going to a person or an institution is zu and coming back is von. Going to a city or country is nach and coming back is aus.
Learning them as pairs settles six prepositions with three facts, and it also settles the case: everything coming back is dative, because a source is not a destination and never triggers the accusative.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
the origin is a starting point of a journey
von is used even for a city.
Der Zug kommt von Hamburg.The train is coming from Hamburg.
The city is then a departure point rather than an origin.
-
a reason rather than a place is meant
aus introduces a motive.
Er hat es aus Angst getan.He did it out of fear.
The idea of something coming out of something extends to causes.
Woran man es erkennt
- woher
- aus
- von
- vom
- seit
- ab
Beispielsätze
Woher kommst du? — Aus Italien.Where are you from? — Italy.
Er kommt gerade von der Arbeit.He has just come from work.
Nimm das Buch aus dem Regal.Take the book off the shelf.
Das ist ein Geschenk von meiner Mutter.That is a present from my mother.
Die Jacke ist aus Leder.The jacket is leather.
Noch 6 Beispielsätze
Sie stammt aus einer kleinen Stadt.She comes from a small town.
Ich habe es von einem Kollegen gehört.I heard it from a colleague.
Hol bitte die Milch aus dem Kühlschrank.Get the milk out of the fridge, please.
Das Paket ist von meiner Schwester.The parcel is from my sister.
Ein Ring aus Silber.A silver ring.
Aus Versehen habe ich es gelöscht.I deleted it by mistake.
Besonderheiten (2)
-
The first question anybody asks
<z>Woher kommen Sie?</z> is among the first questions a learner is asked, and the answer needs <z>aus</z>: <z>Ich komme aus England.</z> The matching question <z>Wo wohnen Sie?</z> takes <z>in</z>, and <z>Wohin fahren Sie?</z> takes <z>nach</z> — three questions, three prepositions, all needed in the same conversation.
-
von also builds the genitive replacement
The same word does a second, unrelated job: <z>das Auto von meinem Bruder</z>, standing in for the genitive. Nothing distinguishes the two uses but the sentence around them, and both are among the most frequent constructions in spoken German.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
English "from" covers both, so the choice has to be made without help. A country is a place you were inside, so it takes aus — and this is the sentence a learner says on the first day and repeats for years. Von Deutschland is not wrong in every context, but as an answer to "where are you from" it says you have just travelled from there rather than that you are German.
Inside it: aus. At it, or a person: von.
Jetzt selbst
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