The time has finally come. In a month or two, I'll be moving to Austria. I've come to the realisation that ein B2-Zertifikat doesn't magically prepare me for daily life in Austria, and therefore I'm committing myself to writing a series of posts where I learn something not only new, but also useful about the german language, such that it has an impact on my Sprachkenntnisse.

I'm a firm believer in The Chunked Language Learning Method, where one learns small expressions that native speakers retrieve as a unit, instead of memorising a list of "1000 Common German Verbs You Should Know" in isolation.

As of 14. Juli 2026, I have no specific list of topics I plan to cover, and I intend to expand my repertoire as time progresses.

But as a first, I plan to tackle directions: asking, giving, and all the other shenanighans.

Some words to know beforehand

These words appear quite frequently throughout the post. The reader may refer back to this list as needed.

My collection of chunks

Asking for Directions

These are the questions that you'd ask when asking for directions.

Wo ist ...?
(Where is ...?)

Wo finde ich ...?
(Where can i find ...?)

Wie komme ich zum Bahnhof?
(How do I get to the station?)

Ist das weit?
(Is it far?)

Wie weit ist es bis zum Bahnhof?
(How far is it to the station?)

Komme ich mit dem Bus dorthin?
(Can I get there by bus?)

Wie lange dauert es mit dem Bus?
(How long does it take by bus?)

Starting a route

Here we deal with aligning oneself and starting the motion.

Dreh dich nach <richtung>.
(Turn yourself to <direction>)

Geh geradeaus.
(go straight ahead)

Fahr geradeaus.
(drive straight ahead)

Lauf geradeaus.
(walk/run straight ahead)

Turning

The important verb here is ab|biegen, which means to turn. If you feel a bit conflicted here:

1. drehen means to rotate, spin, or turn something around an axis.
2. ab|biegen means to turn (at a road, corner, intersection, etc).

Bieg an der Kreuzung links ab.
(Turn left at the intersection)

Bieg an der Ampel rechts ab.
(Turn right at the intersection)

Following Roads

As a side note, this is one of the few places I've seen the entlang being used as a postposition. The grammar behind entlang is beyond the scope of this article, but I'd be happy to link a few resources down for the curious ones among us.

Geh die Hauptstraße immer geradeaus entlang.
(Keep going straight along the main street)

Folge der Hauptstraße immer geradeaus.
(Follow the main street)

Passing something

The next one is one of my personal favourites: an(Dat.) <something> vorbei|<verb>. It is commonly used with verbs such as gehen, fahren, laufen, etc.

If I'm not mistaken, this pattern is often taught in the A2 level, but is overlooked by surprisingly many learners. Ironically, I first paid attention to this chunk while teaching A2 students.

Geh am Hotel vorbei.
(Walk past the hotel)

Fahr am Bahnhof vorbei.
(Drive past the station)

Gestern bin ich an ihrem Haus vorbeigelaufen.
(Yesterday I ran past her house)

As shown by the last example, these chunks can easily be put into use in non-imperative scenarios.

Crossing

No need for explanations here.

Geh über die Brücke.
(Go across the bridge)

Geh über die Straße.
(Go across the street.)

Überquere die Straße.
(Cross the road)

Going through

durch is often used to show going through something. Common examples being parks, tunnels, and forests.

Geh durch den Park.
(Go through the park)

Fahr durch den Wald.
(Drive through the forest)

Geh durch den Tunnel.
(Go through the tunnel)

Going to

This part is notorious for confusing innocent newcomers and is often taught as dogmatic and as something to be memorised, to which I *partially* agree.

The following prepositions are used to express the idea:

1. zu(Dat.)

Used when going to:

• a person
• a business/institution, where the destination is more important than entering the building
• events (party, wedding, concert)

Geh zum Bahnhof.
(Go to the railway station).

Geh zur Apotheke.
(Go to the pharmacy)

Geh zur Bushaltestelle.
(Go to the bus stop)

2. nach

Used with:

• cities
• countries without article
• compass directions.
• nach Hause

Fahr nach Berlin.
(Drive to Berlin)

Flieg nach Indien.
(Fly to India)

Geh nach Norden.
(Head north)

Geh nach Hause.
(Go home)

3. in(Akk.)

Often used:

• when moving into an enclosed space or area
• with some countries with a grammatical article (in die Schweiz, in die USA, etc)

Geh in den Park.
(Go into the park).

Geh ins Museum.
(Go into the Museum)

Geh ins Gebäude.
(Go into the building)

Flieg in die USA.
(Fly to the USA)

4. auf(Akk.)

Used when moving onto:

• a surface (auf den Tisch, auf den Stuhl).
• some Open Public Places, such as:
  • auf den Platz
  • auf den Hof
  • auf das Feld
  • auf den Markt
  • auf die Insel
  • auf die Toilette

Geh auf die Straße.
(Go onto the road)

Geh auf den Platz.
(Go onto the square)

Until...

No need for explanations here.

Geh bis zur Kreuzung.
(Go until the intersection)

Geh bis zur Ampel.
(Go until the traffic light)

Geh bis zum Kreisverkehr.
(Go until the roundabout)

Fahr bis zum Ende der Straße.
(Drive until the end of the road).

Describing Locations

Here are some examples:

How to practice

At first it might come off as a herculean task to learn all the chunks given above. An exercise I use myself to learn and to teach my students works as follows:

Imagine a friend from your college wants to come and meet you at your house to do some assignments. The friend is currently at <insert random place within 2 KMs of your house>. Give them detailed instructions to reach your home. (No, GPS is not invented yet. You can shut your know-it-all mouth up. Danke!).

This method, in my opinion is bullet-proof as it requires nothing else but time and some conscious effort from the reader's side.

References

• Reddit - I'm confused on how to use "entlang"

Did I miss anything? Or did you enjoy my writing?

Write me an e-mail, so we can get in touch!