A2 · The prepositions

Verbs with a fixed preposition

« I like fish » has no preposition; gosto de peixe cannot do without one.

Some verbs demand a preposition and it is not negotiable: gostar de, precisar de, lembrar-se de, esquecer-se de, pensar em, acreditar em, começar a, ajudar a.

The commonest is gostar de: gosto de peixe, gosto de ti, gosto de ler. Without the de the sentence does not stand. English gives you no warning here at all: « I like fish » takes a bare object, and the ear hears nothing missing.

The pattern repeats. « Need » takes a bare object and precisar takes de; « remember » takes a bare object and lembrar-se takes de. Where English does supply a preposition, it is usually not the same one: « think about » against pensar em, « believe in » against acreditar em — that last pair happens to match, and one match out of several is a warning rather than a rule.

Before an infinitive the preposition stays: começo a trabalhar, gosto de ler, preciso de sair.

Die Form

to like	gostar de
to need	precisar de
to remember	lembrar-se de
to think about	pensar em
to begin to	começar a
to help to	ajudar a

Die Regeln im Einzelnen

gostar always takes de.
Gosto muito deste sítio.I like this place very much.
pensar and acreditar take em.
Penso nisso todos os dias.I think about it every day.
começar and ajudar take a.
Começo a trabalhar às oito.I start work at eight.
Before an infinitive the preposition stays.
Preciso de sair mais cedo.I need to leave earlier.

Woran man es erkennt

gostar de
precisar de
pensar em
começar a

Beispielsätze

Gosto de café sem açúcar.I like coffee without sugar.

Não me lembro do nome dele.I do not remember his name.

Ela ajudou-me a encontrar a casa.She helped me find the house.

Esqueci-me das chaves outra vez.I forgot my keys again.

Die typisch deutsche Falle

Aufgepasst

Dropping the de after gostar is the commonest preposition mistake there is. Gosto peixe is not a sentence, and it happens so often because English « like » stands with nothing. The same with precisar.

Falsch:Gosto peixe.

Richtig:Gosto de peixe.

The preposition belongs to the verb, not to the sentence.

Jetzt selbst

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