GermanFluent

A1 · Time and place prepositions

bei

at someone's home, at a company, near a place

Formbei + Person oder Firma (Dativ)

Meaning and usage

bei says where someone is: at a person's home, at a company, or near a place. It answers Wo? and takes the dative: bei meinen Eltern, bei mir, bei Siemens. With a town it means near: Potsdam liegt bei Berlin.

bei shows position, not movement. English speakers often say Ich gehe bei meinem Freund, but for going to someone German uses zu: Ich gehe zu meinem Freund. Once you are there, you are bei meinem Freund.

Examples 5

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  1. 1 Sprachbausteine

    Meine Schwester wohnt noch unseren Eltern.

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    Correct answer: bei

    wohnen describes where someone lives, so the sentence needs the position preposition bei with the dative unseren Eltern.

    • zu shows direction, so it does not fit wohnen, which asks where.
    • aus shows origin, so it answers Woher?, not Wo?.
    • nach is used for cities and countries without an article, not for people.

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.