Nach, in, zu, auf, an: direction prepositions

German answers the question "where to?" (wohin?) with five different prepositions — and the choice between them depends not on the verb (fahren, gehen, fliegen all pair equally well with any of them), but on what kind of destination it is: a city, a person, a mountain, the blackboard in a classroom. A literal translation of "to"/"into" is no help here — only the type of destination decides.

The trap: nach Hause or zu Hause?

Both phrases are correct — and both are fixed, with no article. The difference isn't the preposition itself, but whether it's a direction or a location: nach Hause answers "where to?" (Ich gehe jetzt nach Hause — "I'm going home now"), while zu Hause answers "where?" (Ich bin zu Hause — "I'm at home"). That's why zu Hause doesn't combine with movement verbs like gehen or fahren — this is the one pair in this topic where picking the wrong one still produces a grammatical sentence, just the wrong one.

Why this isn't just "the preposition's case"

In, auf, and an are Wechselpräpositionen — on their own they allow either case, Akkusativ for motion and Dativ for location. This page is always about direction, so all three take Akkusativ here. Nach and zu, on the other hand, aren't Wechselpräpositionen at all: zu always takes Dativ, and nach, in this role, takes no article in the first place. So what's competing here isn't the cases of one preposition, but five different prepositions — and only the type of destination decides between them.

Practice

Try a few exercises on choosing a direction preposition.

More exercises on this topic, with your progress saved and reminders to review — in the Telegram bot @ImmerWiederholenBot.

See also

• Prepositions and cases — prepositions whose case is fixed once and for all, regardless of meaning.
• Verbs with prepositions — here the preposition depends on the specific verb, not on the type of destination.
• German cases — start here if cases in general are still confusing.