Genitiv prepositions — wegen, trotz, während, statt

A small but very usable set of prepositions wants its noun in Genitiv. In formal writing, these are required. In speech, most of them quietly switch to Dativ — and both are accepted now. Know the written form, recognize the spoken one.

The core four

The other, less frequent ones

You'll also meet these in writing:

Worked examples

Notice the noun inflection — masculine/neuter singular picks up -s (des Wetters, eines Kaffees). Feminine and plural don't.

The spoken Dativ shift

In speech, Germans very often use Dativ after wegen, trotz, statt, während. Both forms appear in dictionaries now.

Practical advice: in writing and exams, always use Genitiv. In everyday speech, both work and nobody'll bat an eye at Dativ.

dank — already mostly Dativ

Dank (thanks to) once took Genitiv, but in modern German Dativ is the norm: dank deinem Einsatz (Dativ). The older Genitiv version — dank deines Einsatzes — still shows up in formal writing but sounds pedantic in speech.

Adjective endings after Genitiv prepositions

Same rule as any Genitiv — the adjective takes -en:

Common mistakes, named

1. Dropping noun -s after masculine/neuter article. wegen des Regen ❌ → wegen des Regens ✓

2. Mixing case. während den Ferien (Dat.) — fine in speech, wrong in writing.

3. Using Genitiv with Dativ prepositions. mit des Freundes ❌ — mit takes Dativ always, regardless of the Genitiv trend elsewhere.

4. Capitalizing statt unnecessarily. It's a preposition. Lowercase. Not to be confused with Statt (feminine) in the obsolete phrase an Statt.

Mini check

Where this leads

Time to really stretch your sentences. Subordinate clauses — weil, dass, obwohl — change word order so the verb goes to the very end. Big structural move, easy to learn.

Next up: Nebensätze — subordinate clauses.

Test yourself