A1 · Time and place prepositions

Ich komme aus …

saying where someone or something comes from

Formkommen + aus + Ort oder Land (Dativ)

Meaning and usage

aus answers the question Woher?: it names the place, country or family that someone or something comes from. The pattern is kommen plus aus plus a noun. Most countries and towns need no article, so you say aus England or aus Boston.

When the noun has an article, aus takes the dative: aus der Schweiz, aus dem Süden, aus einer kleinen Familie. English speakers often keep the article they know from the nominative and say aus die Schweiz or aus eine Familie. After aus it is always the dative.

Examples 5

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  1. 1 Sprachbausteine

    Meine Freundin kommt Schweiz.

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    Correct answer: aus der

    aus takes the dative, and Schweiz is feminine, so the form is aus der Schweiz.

    • aus die keeps the accusative or nominative article, which aus never takes.
    • aus dem is dative, but it is masculine or neuter, and Schweiz is feminine.
    • aus den is dative plural, and Schweiz is singular.

In this topic: Time and place prepositions

  1. am Montag, am Abend on Monday, in the evening
  2. im Januar, im Sommer in a month or season
  3. um acht Uhr at + clock time
  4. von … bis from one time or place to another
  5. nächste Woche, jeden Tag next week, every day: no preposition, accusative
  6. vor zwei Jahren ago, with a length of time
  7. Ich komme aus … saying where someone or something comes from
  8. nach Berlin, zum Arzt, in die Schule to a town, to a person, into a place
  9. zu Hause, nach Hause at home vs. going home
  10. bei at someone's home, at a company, near a place
  11. zum, zur, ins, beim, vom zum, zur, ins, beim, vom: preposition and article as one

Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. See sources.