KS3 · German · Year 8
In the news: 'an' vs 'auf' (accusative and dative)
In the news: using prepositions 'an', 'auf', 'gegen', 'laut'
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IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/8
Your learning goal
I can use my knowledge of prepositions 'an' and 'auf' with accusative and dative cases, word patterns and word families to understand and respond to a text about cybersecurity.
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In the news: 'an' vs 'auf' (accusative and dative): slides adapted from the imported teaching text; recall questions created from its keywords, learning points and common mistakes. Self-check practice, with no automatic grading or XP. Answers stay on this page and are cleared when you leave.
Original teaching resources
The original illustrated PowerPoint is available as well as the IllumED text slides. It retains the publisher’s design and credits.
Download original PowerPoint ↓What you’ll learn
I can use my knowledge of prepositions 'an' and 'auf' with accusative and dative cases, word patterns and word families to understand and respond to a text about cybersecurity.
Key learning points
- The prepositions 'an' and 'auf' tell us where something or someone is moving to, when used with the accusative case.
- The prepositions 'an' and 'auf' tell us where something or someone is located, when used with the dative case.
- Knowledge of word patterns and word families helps you to understand more words in a text.
Words to know
- an
- preposition 'on' or 'onto' for a vertical surface
- auf
- preposition 'on' or 'onto' for a horizontal surface
- word family
- group of related words with a common ‘base’ word, e.g., 'arbeiten', 'arbeitet', 'die Arbeit', 'der Arbeiter'
Common mistakes
I can use 'an' and 'auf' interchangeably to mean 'on' or 'onto'.
We use 'an' to mean 'on' or 'onto' when the position is vertical, e.g., 'on the wall' - 'an der Wand'. We use 'auf' to mean 'on' or 'onto' when the position is horizontal, e.g., 'on the table' - 'auf dem Tisch'.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Teachers may find it useful to add physical demonstrations of 'an' and 'auf' with classroom objects to reinforce the difference - for example, placing a paper 'an die Tafel' (onto the board) versus 'auf den Tisch' (onto the table). This helps learners link prepositions to real-world spatial actions.