German Grammar Made Easy: Während, Wegen & More

Guten Tag, wie geht's? In this lesson we're going to use prepositions followed by the genitive. There are four cases in German. The nominative, the accusative, the dative and the genitive. The genitive is used for possession, after certain verbs and also after certain prepositions. Today we're going to focus on prepositions. When we need to use one of the prepositions followed by the genitive, our articles will then need to change. For masculine and neuter nouns, we also add s to the end of the noun itself. So as you can see, in terms of definite articles, we use des for masculine and neuter nouns and der for feminine and plural nouns. In terms of indefinite articles, we use eines for masculine and neuter nouns and einer for feminine nouns. Let's first take a look at two commonly used prepositions followed by the genitive. Anstatt means instead of and trotz means despite. Let's first do a speaking practice of these prepositions. That was great. Well done. Let's now take a look at example sentences that use these prepositions. Trotz des Wetters finde ich die Klimawandel alarmierend. Klimawandel means climate change and it's a masculine noun. And as it comes after the preposition Anstatt, it's in the genitive. So we use des and we also add s at the end of the noun. Similarly, Wetter meaning weather is a masculine noun. So we use the article des and we also add s at the end of wetter. Okay, so let's now do a speaking practice of these sentences. Great job. Well done. Let's take a look at two more common prepositions which are followed by the genitive. Während means during and wegen means because of. Let's first do a listening repeat practice of these prepositions. That was great. Well done. Here are two example sentences that use these prepositions. Während des Jahres wird es immer wärmer. Wegen der Überfischung gibt es Wasserverschmutzung. Jahre is a neuter noun. So it uses the article des and we also add s at the end of the word. Überfischung is a feminine noun. So we use the article der and we don't add s at the end of the noun. We only do this with masculine and neuter nouns. Let's now do a listening repeat practice of these sentences. Während des Jahres wird es immer wärmer. Wegen der Überfischung gibt es Wasserverschmutzung. Excellent job. Well done. Now there are also other prepositions followed by the genitive which are a bit less common. Innerhalb, außerhalb, oberhalb, unterhalb, diesseits, jenseits, seitens, anlässlich, laut, bezüglich, Kraft, aufgrund. Now we won't look at these in so much detail as these prepositions are less common. But let's now do a speaking practice of these prepositions as well. Excellent job. Well done. How would you say the following? During the week. Während der Woche. Instead of the car. Anstatt des Autos. Despite the weather. Trotz des Wetters. Because of global warming. Wegen der globalen Erwärmung. Excellent job today. Well done. Today we have learnt how to use prepositions with the genitive. And we have focused on four of the most common prepositions which are followed by the genitive. Auf Wiedersehen.