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Hin and Her

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LebensForm
Senior Member
Austria
Joined 5051 days ago

212 posts - 264 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 1 of 7
22 December 2011 at 4:36pm | IP Logged 
I am trying to master the concept of hin and her in German.
I know that hin has to do with movement,
like going towards something. Wohin gehst du-
where(to) do you go? But how exactly does that differ
from wo gehst du hin?- where are you going?
This has to do with motion. And her is like "here?"
Is that just strictly location then?
I do know that hin is a seperable prefix,
so that must be why in the 2. sentence hin is moved to the end.
Hope this is not worded too confusingly.
I think I am confusing myself though.
This is why I need to actually find me a good quality
grammar book that explains hin and her and all that fun jazz.

Thanks for your help, I do appreciate it.

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Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
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2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 2 of 7
22 December 2011 at 5:26pm | IP Logged 
wohin? = where to?
woher? = where from?
hin und her = to and fro

You can seperate wohin? und woher? into wo... hin? and wo... her? but you don't have to.
You can either say: Wohin gehst du? or: Wo gehst du hin? It both means: Where do you go?
Exactly the same with woher: Woher kommst du? / Wo kommst du her? Meaning: Where do you come from?
Hope this helped a little bit.

Edited by Josquin on 22 December 2011 at 5:27pm

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LebensForm
Senior Member
Austria
Joined 5051 days ago

212 posts - 264 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 3 of 7
22 December 2011 at 5:42pm | IP Logged 
Yes that does!! I was under the impression that they both meant different things, which is what confused me because I thought it meant the same thing. Glad to know this, vielen dank!!
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LanguageSponge
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5767 days ago

1197 posts - 1487 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, French
Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian

 
 Message 4 of 7
22 December 2011 at 7:30pm | IP Logged 
Josquin wrote:
wohin? = where to?
woher? = where from?
hin und her = to and fro

You can seperate wohin? und woher? into wo... hin? and wo... her? but you don't have
to.
You can either say: Wohin gehst du? or: Wo gehst du hin? It both means: Where do you
go?
Exactly the same with woher: Woher kommst du? / Wo kommst du her? Meaning: Where do you
come from?
Hope this helped a little bit.


Is one variant used more frequently than the other? Is one perhaps more formal than the
other?

Woher hast du das denn?
Wo hast du das denn her?

Saying them to myself now I don't think there'd be any difference, but something
tells me there probably is one somehow? Perhaps it's just nitpicking though.

Thanks,
Jack
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Cabaire
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5600 days ago

725 posts - 1352 votes 

 
 Message 5 of 7
22 December 2011 at 8:00pm | IP Logged 
I do not feel a significant difference. But to quote an authority (DUDEN Die Grammatik):

"Neben der Verbindung wohin/woher/daher/dahin + Bewegungsverb wird v. a. in der Umgangssprache auch wo/da in Verbindung mit einem hin- oder her- zusammengesetzten Bewegungsverb gebraucht."

So "Wo gehst du hin" might be more colloquial than "Wohin gehst du?".
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egill
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5697 days ago

418 posts - 791 votes 
Speaks: Mandarin, English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch

 
 Message 6 of 7
24 December 2011 at 1:10pm | IP Logged 
It's similar to English where/whither/whence if you're familiar with that.
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Mai
Bilingual Triglot
Newbie
United States
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3 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: English*, Cantonese*, German
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 7 of 7
27 December 2011 at 12:15am | IP Logged 
Wohin gehst du? = Wo gehst du hin?
Woher kommst du? = Wo kommst du her?

The two forms are pretty equivalent. Wohin and wohin are simply wo- compound with the prefixes hin and her. However, "Wo gehst du hin?" might be better explained as a verb with a separable prefix. Therefore, one could say the following and both are equally correct.

Ich frage dich, wo du herkommst. = Ich frage dich, woher du kommst.
Ich frage dich, wo du hingehst. = Ich frage dich, wohin du gehst.


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