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https://yourdailygerman.com/zu-location-german-in/
Hello everyone,
and welcome to a new episode of the series German Prepositions Explained, this time with a detailed look
at
zu
As usual, we'll first check out what the word means as a preposition, then we'll see if and how this
connects to its use as a verb prefix, and finally, we'll take a look at the annoying ... ahem zoo... of fixed
combinations of the preposition with certain verbs. Which is kind of special in case of zu because there
are many and none. Dun dunn dunnnnn.
So are you ready to jump right in?
Then let's go....
I think it's not a surprise to any of you that zu is related to the English to and too. The origin the Indo-
European stem that was about pointing at/to something and that's pretty close to the core idea the word
has today which is... "toward-ness".
"zu" as a preposition
Zu is one of the two main German word to indicate where someone (or something) is headed. The other
word is Bar.
Nah, kidding. The other word is in. We'll talk about the whole "Talking about location"-stuff in detail in a
separate mini series soon (in about 153 years) but of course we can't completely ignore that here. But I
want to address one other thing real quick, for the beginners among you.
Besides zu, there will also be zum and zur in the examples. Those are shortened versions of the
combinations zu der and zu dem and they're not just something people use in spoken. They're kind of
"officially" shortened.
And those articles bring us to the other point: zu is one of the Dative prepositions. That means that it is
ALWAYS followed by Dative. A l w a y s.
And just in case you're wondering if there's also zun as a short form of zu den (the plural Dative
article) ... the answer is no. We tried to get a comment from German as to why not, but we haven't heard
back so far.
Cool.
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German Prepositions Explained - "zu" - 07-10-2018
by German-is-easy - German is easy! - https://yourdailygerman.com
1. In is used for all those locations that you can physically enter.
2. Zu is used when the entity you pick as a destination cannot really be entered
(or you can enter it, but you want to emphasize that you don't.)
Using in here is technically possible, but it would be understood as something very very very very very
different.
Anyway, people doesn't only mean names but also extends to job titles
... and also - and this might throw you off a bit - to all kinds of stores, if you refer to them by their brand
name.
Of course you do usually enter McDonalds but using in here would sound super wrong. The brand name
basically personifies the store.
Cool.
So far, we have persons and personifications. But there's more.
Zu is also used for events like parties, festivals, concerts, meetings and so on.
(often auf is also an option for events)
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German Prepositions Explained - "zu" - 07-10-2018
by German-is-easy - German is easy! - https://yourdailygerman.com
And we don't actually need too much mind bending to get from the location-focused idea of to an event to
the more abstract context of for an occasion. Which is also expressed with zu. Like.. for Christmas,
birthdays or promotions. Or for lunch. Or just for the second time.
And if we think of events and occasions as a general idea of "stuff happening, stuff going on", we're pretty
much right right at the last group of zu-destinations: activities.
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German Prepositions Explained - "zu" - 07-10-2018
by German-is-easy - German is easy! - https://yourdailygerman.com
Activities... hmm... those are usually represented by verbs, right? Let's make a mental note of that for later
;).
But yeah... generally, zu expresses "toward-ness without entering" and the big three groups we can make
up are:
This is not super strict and there are exceptions. And oh... there's one use we should mention, because it's
super confusing.
We reached out to German for comment but we haven't heard back so far :).
Cool.
So now that we know when to use zu as a preposition, let's take a look at zu as a prefix.
"zu" as a prefix
Prefix verbs usually keep the core idea of the preposition they're made with, but they are much more
"open-minded" with the interpretation. Like... really open. Which is ironic in case of zu because... but I'm
getting ahead of myself.
So, we've seen that zu has this basic idea of toward-ness and for some it's pretty obvious.
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German Prepositions Explained - "zu" - 07-10-2018
by German-is-easy - German is easy! - https://yourdailygerman.com
Die Hacker konnten auf alle Dateien der Firma zugreifen. ("grab toward")
The hackers could access all data of the company.
Also kind of clear are zuhören and zugucken. Zuhören is to listen TO someone (or something) in the
sense of really actively listening. So not for listening to music or to listen in the sense of heeding advice.
And zugucken (also zuschauen and zusehen) is to watch, again in a very active, focused sense. So not
for watching a movie.
"Warum hörst du mir nie zu? .... Emanuel, ich hab' dich was gefragt."
"Oh... was... äh... sorry, ich hab nicht zugehört."
"Why do you never listen to me?.... Emanuel, I asked you a question."
"Oh... what... erm... sorry, I wasn't listening."
But the other common ones are not all that obvious anymore. Take zulassen for instance, which means to
allow, in a sense of letting it happen. If we think of that as "letting toward reality" then we have a
connection, but yeah... it's kinda random.
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German Prepositions Explained - "zu" - 07-10-2018
by German-is-easy - German is easy! - https://yourdailygerman.com
Wir dürfen nicht zulassen, dass die Einhörner weiter ihren Giftmüll in den See kippen.
We must not allow that the unicorns keep throwing their toxic waste into the lake.
Or how about nehmen and geben. Nice pair, right? But once they get zu-, they don't have much to do
with one another anymore. Zugeben means to admit, zunehmen can mean to increase, and also to gain
weight.
Same thing for zustellen and zustehen. You'd expect there to be some connection in meaning but nope...
nothing. Zustellen means to deliver in context of mail; which is kind of straight forward... well, at least if
you think of a large parcel. Zustehen on the other hand means to have a right for something. And
Zustand is condition (as in shape).
I mean... none of the meanings is completely crazy. Admitting is kind of about giving toward, gaining
weight is kind of about taking toward. And being one's right is kinda sorta standing toward. But the
meanings are nothing you could guess from just looking at the parts. There are a few more useful words
and I'll give you a little list later. But first let's look at the other core idea of zu whi... oh.. hold on, we
have a call... Takumi from Japan, welcome to the show.
"Konichiwa Emanuel, thanks a lot for taking my call."
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German Prepositions Explained - "zu" - 07-10-2018
by German-is-easy - German is easy! - https://yourdailygerman.com
But there aren't many useful versions that I can think of. And you'll definitely understand them from
context.
"Cool, thanks a lot."
No problem! Hey, do you wanna join me for a bit.
"Sure, why not..."
So,like many prefixes, zu- actually has two core ideas. Do you know what the other one is?
"Uh... something with closing right?"
Exactly. In fact, zu by itself means precisely that... closed. And the opposite is auf, by the way.
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German Prepositions Explained - "zu" - 07-10-2018
by German-is-easy - German is easy! - https://yourdailygerman.com
Oh, and I almost forgot zuhaben, which means to be closed for stores and stuff like that.
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German Prepositions Explained - "zu" - 07-10-2018
by German-is-easy - German is easy! - https://yourdailygerman.com
(the most common fixed combinations and some cool colloquial phrasings with "dazu")
** vocab **
zugehen - close by itself, let itself be closed; with "auf": go toward something/someone
der Zugang - the access; can also be used for places you can actually enter
zugänglich - accessible
zugucken - watch (very "active", not for movies, also not for contexts of guarding)
zumachen - to close
zu sein - to be closed
zusagen - formal sounding "to say yes"; with Dative also "be appealing to someone"
die Zusage - formal way for "a yes" (an "affirmative")
zuschlagen - punch (without mentioning a target); also: figurative sense of "taking" a good offer
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German Prepositions Explained - "zu" - 07-10-2018
by German-is-easy - German is easy! - https://yourdailygerman.com
zusehen - same as zugucken; also used in sense of "to see to it/make sure"
zusetzen - rare for the metaphorical "taking a toll"; rare also for adding chemicals to food
der Zusatz - the extra, additional bit; mostly used for compounds
zusätzlich - additionally
zustellen - deliver mail, can technically also mean that you close something by putting stuff there
die Zustellung - the delivery (mail)
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