When to use it
Use it to ask for directions. Almost every German city has a "Hauptbahnhof", often shortened to "Hbf".
“How do you get to the central station from here?” · The sentence in English
"How do you get to the central station from here?" uses "you" for people in general and the verb "get".
- How
- adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner
- do
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · auxiliary that makes the question
- you
- pronounpersonal pronoun used for people in general
- get
- verbget · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · "get to" means "arrive at"
- to
- prepositionpreposition of direction; "get to" means "arrive at"
- the
- determinerdefinite article
- central
- adjectiveadjective
- station
- nounnoun
- from
- prepositionpreposition
- here
- adverbadverb of place
“Wie kommt man von hier zum Hauptbahnhof?” · The sentence in German
"Wie kommt man von hier zum Hauptbahnhof?" uses "man", the general "one", and the verb "kommen". "Zum" is the short form of "zu dem".
- Wie
- adverbquestion word: "how"
- kommt
- verbkommen · tense: present · mood: indicative · person: third · number: singular · "comes", "gets"; "wie kommt man" = "how do you get"
- man
- pronounimpersonal pronoun: "one", "you" in general
- von
- preposition"from"
- hier
- adverb"here"
- zum
- contractionzu + dem: "to the"
- Hauptbahnhof
- nounmasculine compound noun: Haupt (main) + Bahnhof, "central station"
What changes from one language to the other · English × German
English uses a general "you"; German uses "man". English "get to" becomes "kommen zu". German joins the preposition and the article into one word, "zum".
Example conversation
— Wie kommt man von hier zum Hauptbahnhof?
— How do you get to the central station from here?
— Nehmen Sie die U-Bahn, das sind zwei Stationen.
— Take the subway, it's two stops.