Verbs With Prepositions – Practice Tool
Welcome to my online verb-preposition trainer.
Many German verbs and phrases come with a fixed prepositions:
warten auf, sich interessieren für, or Angst haben vor.
These combos need to be learned and the best way is through repetition.
With my tool, you can practice them till they’re automatic.
Viel Spass !
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What are verbs with prepositions
Many verbs and phrases go with a fixed preposition. In English for instance, you say “wait for”, “struggle with” or “be afraid of”.
German has a lot of these too, and the usually do not line up with English. You have to learn them and that takes practice (and it’s a lifelong journey. Trust me).
There are some patterns and trends you can use as a guide. You’ll learn about them while you use the trainer, and you can also find them in my lesson series on prepositions.
How the verb preposition tool works
The trainer gives you German example sentences with the preposition blanked out. Depending on the mode you choose, you either pick the right preposition from several options or type the full answer yourself.
- Choose the level you want to practice
- Pick between multiple choice and typing mode
- Choose easy or more complex sentences
- Choose the size of your practice set
- Get translations for each example sentence
- See short explanations for the answers
- Practice your mistakes again during and after the set
What can I practice?
You can practice common verb-preposition combinations, but also fixed phrases based on nouns and adjectives.
For example:
- warten auf – to wait for
- sich interessieren für – to be interested in
- Angst haben vor – to be afraid of
- stolz sein auf – to be proud of
The combinations are grouped roughly by level, so you can start with the most common ones or challenge yourself with rarer phrases.
Practice modes
Multiple choice
In multiple choice mode, you see a German sentence with the preposition missing and choose the correct answer from several options.
This mode is great for quick drilling and building recognition. On desktop, you can also use the keyboard to answer faster.
Typing mode
In typing mode, you have to type the preposition yourself, and sometimes also the article.
That makes this mode much harder, because you may also need to think about case and gender. It’s basically a hidden case drill on top of the preposition practice, so it’s best for more advanced learners.
FAQ
Is this tool based on AI?
The tool uses AI for creating the sentences, but it does NOT rely on AI for the grammar and evaluation, because that wouldn’t be reliable enough.
For that, I rely on “old school” programmatic coding and data curation and I have created a system that really only uses the AI for the “creative part”.
I also tried making the wrong options in multiple choice make some sense, and include the “most common mistake” option for each combo.
How reliable is the tool?
It’s 95% accurate I’d say. Every now and then, an example may be wonky or an explanation is off, but it’s way better than if you just rely on AI for everything.
What if a question sounds wrong?
You can flag bad or weird questions. The question will then be removed from your current set and won’t come up again there. I do not review them because nothing is stored, so don’t worry about false reporting. If something feels off, remove it and drill on :)
What happens when I make a mistake?
Examples you get wrong will come back again during the set, and you can also review your mistakes at the end.
Does the trainer explain the answers?
Yes. Each answer comes with a short explanation. The main logic is based on fixed data, while some grammar breakdowns are AI-assisted and may occasionally be a bit off.
Can non-members use the trainer?
Yes. Non-members can try the trainer with a daily practice limit and some modes restricted. Members can practice without limits.
Is there any tracking of my progress?
There is no tracking going on at the moment. I might add it down the line, but the main purpose of this tool is that you drill the combos until they become automatic for you. Tracking doesn’t help with that. Think of the tool as a gym machine or jogging round you go to regularly, rather than something you have to “complete”.
Audio Speed
Dark Mode
Once the answer is revealed the first part of the paragraph displayed provides a translation. For example, “stolpern über = to stumble over.” I wonder if it would be possible at the end of the exercise to provide a list of the ones reviewed in the exercise? So if I did a set of 15, I’d get a list of those 15 translations.
Ich finde das Tool echt hilfreich. Ich könnte mich vorstellen, dass es noch noch besser wäre wenn relevante Artikeln direkt verlinkt wären dann kann man sofort das Wissen aktualisieren wenn man Fehler macht. Manche Erklärungen sind schwierig zu verstehen, z.B. “An is a two-way preposition; abstract uses often take accusative, but this combination takes dative” aber was bedeutet “abstract uses” hier?
Guter Punkt!!
Ich werde das machen und bei allen Tools relevante Artikel verlinken!
Wo ist das Tool? Es gibt nur “[preposition_practice_tool].”
Oh, mein Fehler. Es ist wieder da!
Back again. Love it. Your explanations really help me to make sense when the answer isn’t obvious. Thanks again.
Happy that it has legs :)
It is a wonderful exercise. My only criticism is that the flag button is so close to the check button that I accidentally flag examples as wrong on my smart phone. . Maybe move it to a corner?
I’ve always wanted an easy online practice tool for this, thank you!!!
Happy you like it!
Wow, that was eye-opening. I clearly need a lot more practice. I’ve been working on prepositions with your card game, but this adds another element I was missing, and I need the practice. I expect to be back regularly.
Yeah, I think this aspect of German gets a bit too little attention generally because the prefix verbs get in the way. Luckily, it’s only a couple of hundred combos that you really NEED. There’s way more of course but when you got a couple of hundred down, you’ll cover 90% of daily conversation. And with the sort of themes that there are, you can make progress quickly. Main challenge is to not let English interfere, I think :)
One thing I’ve noticed with the more complex sentences is many are referential, so often one can pick up the article by looking at the referential clause. I don’t mind the clue, but blurring out the referential article would make it a tiny bit harder.
Das war für mich eine dringend benötigte Übung. Ich sollte es regelmäßig benutzen.
Ja, Uebung ist wirklich wichtig fuer diese Sachen :).
Irgendwann mache ich auch tracking dazu, aber erstmal ist es so “raw”.
Great Tool. I need to do this more often. I find prepositions really hard. This has helped
Yeah, repetition is the mother skill there. Or as we say in German Uebung macht den Meister.
Another great tool! Thank you! Verbs with prepositions are my bane. After learning German for years I still get these wrong probably 70% of the time. It’s so infuriating. I plan on using this every day until I can reduce that to a nice, comfortable 65% failure rate.
I’d really go level by level then. Especially the highest level has a lot of rare ones that you only need as a high B2 or C1, especially actively.
By the way… your comment made me realize that I need to add percentages :).
Very useful and great fun at the same time.
“So it’s NOT warten für but rather warten auf.”
Mind you, it can be “waiting on” in colloquial English. Like, Mick’s not waiting on a lady, he’s just waiting on a friend.
Interesting, I only knew that from the waiter-sense of the word. Like… the waiter is waiting on table 7.
It would be also wonderful to have this kind of tool with vocabulary
Will you be putting this one in the “tools menu”? Or put a heart next to it so we can bookmark it ourselves?
Not something I wanna be without – really enjoy it as a pastime.
Definitely!
I’ll also make the tools easier to access overall, so you can just go and drill away without all the introductory text
one thought/suggestion/query:
sometimes I get the wrong article in the correct case. instead av DER I chose Ihrer – which, ok, context-mäßigt is incorrect (my choice, incorrect) and yet, the case is correct – could we program a “correct” with a subtle correction that while the case is correct, dative, in this case, it should be the article and not the possesive pronoun?
Interested to hear feedback on this one.
This would require round tripping to chatgpt and it wouldn’t be reliable enough imo. Like… the way I built this tool is to cut ChatGPT out from pretty much ANY grammar grading or constructing and instead just use it as a natural language generation tool. All the “math” is handled by predictable programming.
I think this overall detracts from the core value proposition of this, which is to just drill verb preposition combos and I’m really hesitant about watering down accuracy. Everyone and their mother can build a drill like this nowadays but not everyone can build one that’s not full of glitches and nonsense. The more chatgpt gets its fingers into grading and grammar, the more the accuracy woud go down.
I LOVE THIS “TOOL”! It’s like the verb+prep GYM without the wonky clothes and yoga mats! started at the hardest and thought to work downwards to a comfy level – so far so good at highest level, complex sentences – really wakes ME up in the morning!
Make the last one count!
Hah, nice, a drop-set as gym bros and gym sisters would call it:)
It kept repeating the same questions. I think they were always the ones I got wrong at first, but even when I eventually got them right, it kept bringing them back and it did that multiple times. I tried it twice.
Do you mean the exact same questions or “just” the same prepositions`?
I may have missed this, but is there a way to review just the ones we missed at the end of a set? Right now it seems you can only review the entire set. Awesome tool.
The “review mistakes” button right now sits above the counting area, but I’ll move it to the buttons that you see after a set. It makes more sense there, since mistakes are repeated during a set anyways.
The explanations about the more nuanced meaning behind (rather than a translation of) the preposition, following each exercise, is super helpful here. I think I’ll work on the Preposition section of your Grammar Course next. Every guidepost helps, especially with unfamiliar verb+preposition combos. I expect I’ll be using this tool a fair bit. Danke!
I am learning German by myself with books and online resources. YDG’s grammar chapters are unlike any that I have seen. Thank you so much for the sponsored membership.