4.10 Adverbs of place
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to indicate a specific point in time: I saw her last week. I saw Jakob last Friday. He had seen her a moment earlier. We aren’t going away this year.
Ich habe sie letzte Woche gesehen. Ich habe Jakob letzten Freitag gesehen. Er hatte sie einen Augenblick zuvor gesehen. Wir verreisen dieses Jahr nicht.
4.10 Adverbs of place Adverbs of place indicate position and answer the question ‘where?’. In some important contexts German and English usage differs.
hier, dort, da for English ‘here’ and ‘there’: hier English ‘here’
Wir wohnen schon lange hier in Potsdam. We’ve lived here in Potsdam for a long time.
dort English ‘there’
Ich sah deine Schwester dort stehen. I saw your sister standing there.
da less emphatic alternative to dort
Ich sah ihn da an der Ecke stehen. I saw him standing there on the corner.
However, da is often used to point in a general way when the difference between ‘here’ and ‘there’ is not crucial. In such contexts it can correspond to English ‘here’: Herr Meyer ist momentan nicht da.
Mr Meyer is not here at the moment.
oben, unten for English ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ German lacks nouns corresponding to ‘top’ and ‘bottom’, and often uses phrases with oben or unten instead: Sie stand oben auf der Treppe. Sein Name steht unten auf der Liste.
She was standing at the top of the stairs. His name is at the bottom of the list.
mitten for English ‘middle’ The adverb mitten is often the most usual equivalent for the English noun ‘middle’. It is usually followed by an appropriate preposition: Mitten im Garten ist ein Teich. Die Polizei kam mitten in der Nacht. Sie stellte die Vase mitten auf den Tisch.
There’s a pond in the middle of the garden. The police came in the middle of the night. She put the vase in the middle of the table.
