German for all abilities, private and business
So you’ve been learning dative prepositions and you know that ‘zu’ and ‘nach’ can mean ‘to’, because you’ve been practising lots of sentences, like “Wie komme ich zum Bahnhof?” or “Wir fliegen nach Deutschland.” …….
And then somebody says “Ich bin zu Hause” and tells you that it means ‘I’m at home.’
WHAT???
And you hope that they might be wrong. But they are not wrong.
So, yes, when asking for directions, you need to use ‘zu’ + dative, if you are asking for a place with an article (to THE station – zum Bahnhof) and you use ‘nach’ + dative when the place doesn’t have an article (to Germany – nach Deutschland).
And therefore, if you needed to ask ‘how do I get to that house?’ you would use “Wie komme ich zu dem Haus?”
‘Hause’, with the extra ‘e’ at the end, doesn’t mean house, it means home.
Which now leaves the question, is it zuhause, zu Hause or Zuhause?
Yes, you’ve guessed it, all three can be correct.
And finally, how did E.T. say “E.T. phone home!” in the German version of the film?
Answer below the inforgraphic.
“E.T. nach Hause telefonieren!” Did you guess it right?
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