Hello everyone,
I hope you’re doing well, welcome to our German word of the Day.
This time, we will have a look at
The Meaning of “vorher”
Some of you might be like “Hmm, that looks like the opposite of vorhin, right?”
And that would make sense, because at their core her (to here) and hin (to there) are kind of opposites.
However, in the case of vorhin and vorher that doesn’t really matter, and the two are not opposites.
In fact, they’re kind of similar.
Both are adverbs of time, so they can both answer the question “When?” by themselves.
Both are really common and useful in daily life.
And both are used to express a sense of before-ness.
***
If you want to stop hitting the wall in German – Join as a member!
As a member, you can study as much as you want and find lots of information you won’t find anywhere else. Not in class, not in a textbook and not Duolingo or Youtube.
You’ll also get pdf-download, progress tracking, note taking, comment notifications and all practice tools.
Already a member?
Log in here:
Not exactly a must-learn or hard-to-understand case, but you also hear “bis nachher” sometimes if there’s an event between now and “später” when you’ll see each other again. :)
Oh, I use that a lot actually. I’d say “bis nachher” is perfect if you have a fixed time set when you’ll see again (on that day) while “bis später” is for contexts where you know you’ll see each other again on the day, but not when exactly.
To me, vorher and vorhin set both a reference in time and talk about events. Vorhin sets the reference to “now” and talks about an event that happened on the same day but before the reference. Vorher sets the reference to something expresses by another clause (which may be in the future) and talks about an event that happened on has to happen before the reference
Yes, this is exactly what’s happening!! Spot on analysis.
ıch danke auch EMMANUEL, unserer guter Lehrer
You’re a German language blog genius
Thank you :)
In one of your example sentences above, “Du stehst direkt davor.”, I, as a native speaker as well would have said “Du stehst direkt davorNE.”
Maybe just a personal preference here.
Interesting.
To me, “Du stehst direkt da vorne” means that you’re standing there in the front. It does NOT mean “in front of it/that” at all to me. Would you also use “davorne” for figurative uses?
– Ich warne dich da vorne.
Or do you just use it locally.
I would say locally.
For example, “Da vorne ist frisch gebohnert! Bitte, benutzen Sie den Seitenausgang.”
Yeah, I would say this too, but this is not the same as the example in question.
– Da ist das Haus. Der Garten ist dahinter, das Auto ist davor.
I would absolutely never ever use “davorne” here and I would hear it as a mistake, so I’m really surprised that it’s apparently correct in other regions.
Admittedly, it is regional.
In the classroom, naturally, I’d be much more circumspect in my usage.
Emanuel. I think the ordering of the 3 options in Q3 of the quiz might need to be realigned so that they marry with your answers.
The order of the answers is randomized. I can’t really make it match my explanation unfortunately.
That “nachher” only means “later today” was news for me. I thought it meant “after”. In fact, I’ve added them to one anki card as opposites. You know those fotos that show people before and after some fitness program/cosmetic change? I’ve found that they are called “vorher/nachher”, not “vorher/danach”. That must be why I thought it meant “after”.
Oh, good point!!!
Yes, vorher – nachher is a thing and it means before – after.
Only in this pair though.
If you use “nachher” in a sentence with a subject, then it will sound like “later today”. Novels are an edge case:
– Thomas hatte schlechte Laune. Nachher musste er mit Maria reden.
I think some people write that way in novels. It feels very immersive to me. Like… it’s in past tense, but I am at the same time “right there”, so I’m seeing his “later today” like I’m there with him. Does that make sense?
“Anschliessend” might be a synonym for “nachher”, literally “subsequently”.
To me, “anschließend” means “danach”. It has a concrete reference point in a sequence, while “nachher” just vaguely points anywhere later today.
Yes, of course!
I meant “danach” in this instance.
Sorry about that one. Must have forgotten to proofread it
Thanks,
I’m truly grateful to this wonderful community for the generous support in my learning – your kindness really makes a difference!
Willkommen Irene.
Hello everyone,
I just wanted to say how truly thankful I am for this sponsorship. It really means a lot to me. I’m especially grateful to those who contributed extra. Thank you all for your kindness and support!
Willkommen Omar!
Danke!