{"id":93946,"date":"2023-08-23T21:10:55","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T01:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/german-zu\/"},"modified":"2025-02-15T04:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T09:16:11","slug":"german-zu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/german\/german-zu\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Guide to Using Zu in German"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s talk about a two-letter word that’s incredibly versatile: the German preposition<\/a> zu<\/em>.<\/p>\n

By itself, the word expresses direction<\/a> towards someone or something, but paired up with other words, it has tons of other possibilities.<\/p>\n

It’s not necessarily a word you’ll use every day, but it’s one you’ll see often<\/strong>. It’s also a very versatile word<\/strong>, so learning the different meanings of\u00a0zu<\/em>\u00a0and how it works is crucial to expressing yourself fluently in a variety of situations.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc skip=4]<\/p>\n

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How to Form Contractions with Zu<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Before we dive into our\u00a0zu<\/em> guide below, we’ll need to cover German contractions<\/a> so you can recognize how the word is used in different example sentences.<\/p>\n

Since zu<\/em> is a dative preposition, we need to select the correct dative article for our noun. Then, we then take the last letter of the new article (m, r, m)<\/em> and add that on to the end of zu<\/em>, like so:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
Type of Noun<\/th>Dative Article<\/th>Zu<\/em> Phrases<\/th>Contractions of Zu<\/em> Phrases <\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Masculine<\/td> dem<\/em> <\/a>\n <\/td> zu dem<\/strong><\/em> <\/a>\n <\/td> zum<\/strong><\/em> <\/a>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Feminine<\/td> der<\/em> <\/a>\n <\/td> zu der<\/strong><\/em> <\/a>\n <\/td> zur<\/strong><\/em> <\/a>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Neuter<\/td> dem<\/em> <\/a>\n <\/td> zu dem<\/strong><\/em> <\/a>\n <\/td> zum<\/strong><\/em> <\/a>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

(For a comprehensive rundown or refresher on German articles for different genders and cases, the University of Michigan has a helpful chart<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

This is also a handy way to figure out the gender of a noun you don’t know. If you see zur<\/em>, you’ll know that the noun following is feminine. Likewise, nouns following zum<\/em> are either masculine or neuter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These can be difficult concepts to master, so it\u2019s best to get a lot of practice with them through exposure. Seeing how native speakers use zu<\/em> and other grammar concepts in real conversations<\/a> is a great way to build your understanding of them.<\/p>\n

You can see these concepts in action by watching native German speakers on FluentU<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n

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You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\n

P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)<\/a><\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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