Question 1

What does "verb government" (Rektion) mean?

Accepted Answer

Many German verbs require a specific preposition — not always the one a literal translation would suggest (sich interessieren für — "to be interested in", literally "to be interested FOR"). That preposition, plus the case that follows it, has to be learned together with the verb as a single unit, not translated word-for-word from English.

Question 2

Why does the same preposition sometimes take Akkusativ and sometimes Dativ?

Accepted Answer

Some prepositions (an, auf, über, in, and others) are so-called Wechselpräpositionen: on their own they can take either case depending on meaning (motion — Akkusativ, location — Dativ). But once such a preposition is tied to a specific verb (warten auf, sich interessieren für), the case for that verb is fixed and doesn't depend on motion or location — it just has to be memorized too.

Question 3

What's the fastest way to learn verb government?

Accepted Answer

The most effective way is to drill the verb, preposition, and case together, inside real sentences, rather than memorizing a bare list. The free Telegram bot Immer wiederholen does exactly that with spaced repetition: each combination comes back for review right when you're about to forget it.

Verb	Präposition	Kasus	English
abhängen	von	Dativ	to depend on something
anrufen	bei	Dativ	to call somewhere/someone (an organization)
antworten	auf	Akkusativ	to reply to something
berichten	über	Akkusativ	to report on something
bestehen	aus	Dativ	to consist of something
danken	für	Akkusativ	to thank for something
denken	an	Akkusativ	to think about someone/something
fragen	nach	Dativ	to ask about someone/something
gehen	um	Akkusativ	it is about something
gehören	zu	Dativ	to belong to something, to be part of something
glauben	an	Akkusativ	to believe in someone/something
gratulieren	zu	Dativ	to congratulate someone on something
helfen	bei	Dativ	to help with something
hoffen	auf	Akkusativ	to hope for something
passen	zu	Dativ	to match something, to go well with something
sich bedanken	bei	Dativ	to thank someone
sich bedanken	für	Akkusativ	to thank for something
sich beklagen	bei	Dativ	to complain to someone
sich beklagen	über	Akkusativ	to complain about something
sich beschweren	bei	Dativ	to complain to someone
sich beschweren	über	Akkusativ	to complain about someone/something
sich beschäftigen	mit	Dativ	to occupy oneself with something
sich bewerben	um	Akkusativ	to apply for something
sich entschuldigen	bei	Dativ	to apologize to someone
sich entschuldigen	für	Akkusativ	to apologize for something
sich erinnern	an	Akkusativ	to remember someone/something
sich freuen	auf	Akkusativ	to look forward to something (future event)
sich freuen	über	Akkusativ	to be happy about something (past/present)
sich interessieren	für	Akkusativ	to be interested in something
sich kümmern	um	Akkusativ	to take care of someone/something
sich streiten	mit	Dativ	to argue with someone
sich streiten	über	Akkusativ	to argue about something
sich verlieben	in	Akkusativ	to fall in love with someone/something
sich vorbereiten	auf	Akkusativ	to prepare for something
sich ärgern	über	Akkusativ	to be annoyed about something/someone
sorgen	für	Akkusativ	to take care of someone/something
sprechen	mit	Dativ	to talk to someone
sprechen	über	Akkusativ	to talk about something (to discuss)
suchen	nach	Dativ	to search for something/someone
teilnehmen	an	Dativ	to participate in something
träumen	von	Dativ	to dream of someone/something
verzichten	auf	Akkusativ	to give up something
warten	auf	Akkusativ	to wait for someone/something
zählen	zu	Dativ	to be counted among something, to belong to a category

German verbs with prepositions

Table of verb government

How to actually learn these

Practice verb government in the bot