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 Joined 4845 days ago 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. |
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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 Joined 4720 days ago 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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