Verb-Preposition Collocations 3

In the previous modules VPC 1 and VPC 2, you practiced using VPCs with nouns. In this module, we focus on how VPCs are used with personal pronouns and the so-called da-compounds (pronominal adverbs). Note that da-compounds (davon, dabei…) are extremely frequent in German, unlike their English counterparts (‘thereof’, ‘thereby’…).

Activity 1

The sentences below are taken directly from the DWDS corpus and show examples of denken an followed by a personal pronoun.  Read the sentences carefully and choose the part of the text to which the pronoun in the denken an + pronoun construction refers.

Activity 2

The corpus examples below show examples of the the verb denken followed not by a preposition + personal pronoun but by the da-compound daran. Read the sentences carefully and choose the part of the text to which the denken daran construction refers.

Activity 3

Review Activities 1 and 2 paying special attention to the differences between the constructions that they use.  Then complete the exercise below by choosing the rule that best reflects the difference between the denken an + pronoun and the denken daran constructions.

Activity 4

Using the rule above as a guide, complete the dialogue below.

Activity 5

On your own. In the activity above Michael agrees with everything that Katya says.  As you are not a copycat like Michael, write out responses to Katja’s questions using ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers as appropriate.
For example:

Ja, ich denke auch daran.  OR
Nein, ich denke nicht an ihn.

Activity 6

Now let’s look at some corpus examples of VPCs used with da-compounds and determine which prepositions combine with da- and which prepositions combine with dar.  If you find the text hard to read, you can click on the image to get a larger version, or you can go directly to the DWDS Corpus using the link provided below the image.

Activity 7

Go to the DWDS website and review the following corpus examples that show question pronouns and wo-compounds.  Using what you have learned, choose the correct word(s) from the pull-down menu to complete the questions Katja might ask you.  The first two have been done for you.

Activity 8

On your own. Write answers to Katja’s questions above and then create five similar questions that you might want to ask your classmates.