von

Preposition

von

1. (Sette Comuni, + dative) from, of

   Von bannont khèmmatar? ― Where do you come from?

   Von béeme piisto? ― Whose are you? (literally, “Of whom are you?”)

   'S gaplèttarakh von dennàndarn tüut nia bóol.

   Other people's stuff is never good.

   (literally, “The stuff of others never does well.”)

Contraction

von

1. von + in, from the, of the

Related terms

• ave
• basavon

Usage notes

• (from): English “from” is generally expressed by means of von, but aus is often used with words for settlements and territories (like Land, Stadt, Dorf, as well as geographical names). One uses von when both the places “from which” and “to which” are given: Dieser Zug fährt von Köln nach Hamburg. – “This train goes from Cologne to Hamburg.” If the further direction is not given, aus is the normal choice: Dieser Zug kommt aus Köln. – “This train is coming from Cologne.” The phrase: Dieser Zug kommt von Köln is not wrong but has a colloquial ring to it.
• (of): The preposition von is used to replace possessive and partitive genitives, sometimes also prepositions that govern the genitive. Such replacement can be obligatory, optional, or restricted to the colloquial register:

It is obligatory if the genitive cannot be expressed grammatically, which is the case with common nouns not preceded by any declinable articles, determiners, or adjectives: die Rechte von Kindern (“children’s rights”); der Geschmack von Käse (“the taste of cheese”). This is also true of most singular, demonstrative pronouns and often true of all personal pronouns: der Geschmack von diesem (“the taste of this”); ein Freund von mir (“a friend of mine”); *ein Freund meiner is archaic in modern German.

The replacement is optional in cases such as the following:

1.) with those pronouns that do have an applicable genitive form, chiefly plurals: die Arbeit vieler = die Arbeit von vielen (“the work of many”);

2.) with fixed genitive pronoun expressions such as unser aller or ihrer beider, for example: für unser aller Zukunft = für die Zukunft von uns allen (“for the future of us all”), or when selbst follows the personal pronoun in the sense of oneself: ein Teil meiner selbst = ein Teil von mir (selbst) (“a part of myself”);

3.) with the numeral genitives zweier and dreier (see the Declension sections of zwei and drei);

4.) with proper nouns, particularly geographical names: die Kirchen Roms = die Kirchen von Rom (“the churches of Rome”);

5.) with common nouns preceded only by an adjective: die Rechte kleiner Kinder = die Rechte von kleinen Kindern (“small children’s rights”).

The replacement is colloquial in most other cases. Any possessive or partitive genitive can, per se, be replaced with a von-phrase, which is normal in speech, and virtually obligatory in colloquial speech. In formal writing, however, it is generally considered incorrect and unusual. This is one of the gravest grammatical differences between colloquial and literary German.

• In older usage, Latin nouns often occurred in the ablative case after von. This is now obsolete, Latin case inflections never being used in contemporary German (except the genitives of a few personal names).

Derived terms

• vom
• wovon
• davon
• hiervon
• voneinander

See also

• -s