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Lesson 60 of 69 · B1, Unit 2: Complex sentences

darauf, worüber: da- and wo- words

Many German verbs come with a fixed preposition: warten auf ('wait for'), denken an ('think of'), sprechen über ('talk about'), sich freuen auf ('look forward to'). When the object is a thing and you replace it with 'it', German fuses da- with the preposition: Ich warte darauf ('I'm waiting for it'), Ich denke daran.

To ask about a thing, use wo- instead: Worauf wartest du? Woran denkst du? Before a vowel, an -r- slips in: dar-auf, wor-über. For people, keep the preposition and use a normal pronoun: Auf wen wartest du? — Auf ihn.

By the end you can:

  • replace 'preposition + it' with a da- word
  • ask 'what … for/about/of?' with a wo- word
  • use preposition + pronoun for people instead

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