Prepositional Complements Review

Prepositional Complements

Let's look at some of the sentences in our dialogue:

John wartet auf einen Anruf von Ulrike oder Anna. John is waiting for a call from Ulrike or Anna.
Sie helfen ihm beim Einrichten. They will help him with arranging his apartment.
Mein armer Kopf, ich muss an so vieles denken! My poor head, I have to think of so many things!
Womit fangen wir an? Mit den Möbeln oder mit den Elektrogeräten? With what do we begin? With the furniture or the electric appliances?
Frag nach dem Zustand der Möbel! Ask about the condition of the furniture!
Kristina, Andreas und Thomas helfen beim Möbeltransportieren. Kristina, Andreas and Thomas help with carrying the furniture.
Darauf trinken wir einen. We'll have to drink to that.

If you look at the German sentences and their English translations we think you can make a lot of interesting observations.

First, of course, you can see these German and English verbs rule an object which is linked to them with a preposition. (Remember the image of a verb "ruling" the government of a sentence?)

Prepositions which transfer the action of the verb to its object do not really have a meaning, but only a function. We will say the preposition and object "complete" the verb, and call this form a "prepositional complement."

Next, you see that in English many closely related verbs (help, think, wait, be interested) also use prepositions to produce a very similar sense to the German. But you can't just translate them, because the German and English prepositions may be quite different: warten auf, to wait for; fragen nach, to ask about. You could try faking it: to wait on an event, to ask after someone! But it is best to just remember the German.

This means that from now on you will learn not only that a given verb is weak or strong, transitive or intransitive, but also what prepositional complements it "rules" and what the various possible meanings are!

In English, we can think of these prepositions as part of the verb, demanding a single object: "Look after him." "Look for me." But in German the preposition lays claim to its own object by dictating a particular case. We just learned that German prepositions rule different cases. So, you will have to remember not only which preposition the verb needs to complete its sense, but what case the preposition demands. For now, though, just worry about the verbs.

Don't you think your brain will operate on a much more sophisticated level after it has been trained to think about all these complex rules that run the German sentence?