To help remember the dative prepositions, sing them to the first two lines of the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas. Remember that King Wenceslas first set out on the ‘date’ (= dative) of the feast ...

“From”, “at”, “since” or “around” – prepositions like these help us to locate things. They point us in the right direction – in time or place, for example. But it is not always as simple as it seems.

If dual-case prepositions describe movement from one place to another, they are followed by the accusative case. Otherwise, they take the dative. Ich stecke die Schuhe unter das Bett. – I put the ...