Meaning of Hin and Her
The adverb „hin“ describes movement away from the speaker.
The adverb „her“ describes movement towards the speaker.
The questions „woher?“ and „wohin?“ ask about direction.
They can be written together or separate.
„Wohin gehst du?“ – „Wo gehst du hin?“
„Woher kommst du?“ – „Wo kommst du her?“
Hin and Her with Adverbs
When using local adverbs with „hin“ or „her“, we are giving a specific direction towards or away from the speaker.
Examples: Dahin, daher, dorthin, dorther, hierhin, hierher
- „Ich gehe dorthin, wo wir uns das erste mal getroffen haben.“
With other adverbs they aren‘t directly combined. Instead, they go with the verb.
Hin and Her with Verbs
Hin and her are often used as a prefix with a separable verb.
This works for all verbs involving movement.
They give the appropriate direction of the movement.
- „Komm bitte her! Ich muss mit dir reden.“
- „Geht bitte irgendwo anders hin! Ich brauche Ruhe!“
Hin and her with Prepositions and Verbs
To give a more specific direction, they are often combined with a preposition and most often a verb of movement.
- „Anna kam ins Haus hinein und ging gleich wieder heraus.“
- „Ich will den Berg hinauflaufen und dann wieder herunterlaufen.“
- „Du ich kann über die Mauer hinübersehen, aber auch er kann von der anderen Seite herübersehen.“
When combining hin and her with prepositions we often use contractions. Both are correct but the short version is much more popular.
These can even be used as prefixes for separable verbs:
raus = hinaus / heraus rein = hinein / hinaus
rauf = hinauf / herauf runter = hinunter / herunter
rüber = hinüber / herüber
Meanings of the shortened versions
raus = hinaus / hinaus
- „Ich gehe (aus dem Haus) raus.“
Similarly: rauslaufen, rauskommen, rausfahren, rausrennen, rausschwimmen, raustragen, rausschauen …
rein = hinein / herein
- „Ich gehe (in das Haus) rein.“
Similarly: reinlaufen, reinkommen, reinfahren, reinrennen, reintragen, reinschauen, …
rauf = hinauf / herauf
- „Ich gehe auf den Berg rauf.“
Similarly: rauflaufen, raufkommen, rauffahren, raufrennen, rauftragen,
raufklettern, raufbringen …
runter = hinunter / herunter
- „Ich gehe in den Keller runter.“
Similarly: runterlaufen, runterkommen, runterfahren, runterrennen, runtertragen, runterbringen, …
rüber = hinüber / herüber
- „Ich klettere am besten dort über den Zaun rüber.“
Similarly: rüberlaufen, rüberkommen, rüberfahren, rübertragen, rüberbringen, …
„Rüber“ means changing locations: moving from one side to the other.
Summary
Hin and her describe a movement in a certain direction. “Hin“ describes movement away from from the speaker. „Her“ describes movement towards the speaker. We can combine them with other local adverbs, verbs and prepositions.
Further Information
- General information about Adverbs.
- General information about Temporal Adverbs.
- General information about all the other Locative Adverbs.
- Some adverbs are used to connect sentences. They are called Conjunctive Adverbs.
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