How to correctly use the German “wegen”
There are many ways to give a reason in German, but the shortest one might be the construction with “wegen”. Due to confusion with other conjunctions such as “weil”, students often do not use it correctly. After reading this article, you will perfectly know how to build a sentence with it.
Giving reason in German
German offers many possibilities for providing a reason. I already wrote about some of them in the article “How to give a reason in German”. The shortest way is to use a sentence with “wegen” which means: for, due to, because of, because of, and on account of in English.
Recommended study materials on the topic:
A-Grammar: Practice German grammar (incl. answers)
German self-study book for A1-B1 (incl. answers)
________________________
The problem with “wegen”
The reason why many people get confused when they need to build a sentence with “wegen” is that they mix it up with other ways like “weil”. Now, this causal sentence connection is different. Hence, there are two main things that you need to take care of. While “weil” requires a whole new sentence to be added, “wegen” only asks for a noun, and that’s it. There is no possibility to add an entire sentence after you use it because if you want to do so, you should need to use “weil”.
The second part which you need to take care of is the grammatical case that follows “wegen”. It is used with the Genitive, but as you might already know, this case slowly but steadily falls into oblivion within the German population. Mostly, it is replaced by Dative. This is why one can also use it with Dative (now officially accepted by the Duden).
Support my free blog content with a kind donation. Thank you!
An example with Genitive would be:
Ich bleibe heute wegen des Wetters zu Hause.
Ich bleibe heute zu Hause wegen des Wetters.
Wegen des Wetters bleibe ich heute zu Hause.
The same sentences with Dative would be:
Ich bleibe heute wegen dem Wetter zu Hause.
Ich bleibe heute zu Hause wegen dem Wetter.
Wegen dem Wetter bleibe ich heute zu Hause.
What you need to know
As you can see, you can play with the word order and the cases. In general, the usual German will use the Dative case while speaking with you, but it is essential also to know that “wegen” was initially used with Genitive. And who knows, maybe this knowledge will help you out in a test one day.
After reading this article, you should be able to decide when to use “weil” or “wegen” and give reasons in the correct form.
Bis bald!
Steffie
Hi there! Though I provide all blog content for free, your support will be very much appreciated. 🙂
Hi there, I'm Stefanie, the author of the blog post you're reading.
Please support my work!
Search blog