** BREAKING **: German parliament has passed a law to gradually phase out cases till 2035. Adjective endings will be optional from June 1st until they'll be fully removed by 2026.
Read more here ->

wegen

(preposition)

Meanings

1.
because of
(Goes with Dative and Genitive, no matter what the books say. It is what it is.)
Opposite (closest): trotz

Examples tap to show/hide

You need to be a member to see the examples.

Read more tap to show/hide

Which case to use after "wegen"

What's the correct case after the German preposition "wegen"? Books and courses say it's Genitive, but the people have a different opinion...


Word Family tap to show/hide

Root: *wegh-

The core idea of the root was:

moving, going, transporting

This is still quite obvious in relatives like way, voyage or vehicle as well as the German der Weg (the way), weg (away) and bewegen (to move)

Here’s an incomplete list of English members of the family:

  • the way, away, always (what you move on)
  • convey (“transport to”)
  • evict (“transport out”)
  • vehicle (“transporter”)
  • wiggle (move back and forth)
  • via (from Latin “via”- way)
  • voyage, envoy, convoy (also from Latin “via”)
  • vector (from a Latin word for “carrier”)
  • trivia, trivial (a place where 3 roads meet -> a common place)
  • previous (“the way before”)
  • obvious (“the way in front”)
  • vogue (fluctuating, balancing oneself)
  • wagon (transporting device)
  • weigh, weight (shifted from transporting to bearing weight to just measuring it) 

The German preposition wegen becomes clear once you think of it as “by way of”, which also expresses causality in a way.

0 0 votes
Article Rating

Questions and Comments tap to show/hide

🗨
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments


Never miss out!

Join over 20.000 German learners and get my epic newsletter whenever I post a new article :)

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.