Prepositions Anhand, Mittels, and Mithilfe

Prepositions are an important grammatical part of German. In today's article, we will explore together three special prepositions: ANHAND, MITTELS, and MITHILFE (mit Hilfe).

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1. Used with GENITIV

- These prepositions are commonly used in journalistic and academic language, etc. All three prepositions take the genitive case (Genitiv) to express that the noun following them is a means by which something is identified, found, or achieved.

Der Lehrer erklärte die Übung anhand eines Beispiels.

(The teacher explained the exercise using an example.)

Das Gewicht wird mittels einer Waage bestimmt.

(The weight is determined by using a scale.)

Wir arbeiten mithilfe eines Experten an dem Projekt.

= Wir arbeiten mit Hilfe eines Experten an dem Projekt.

(We are working on the project with the help of an expert.)

2. When is the Genitiv used?

- These three prepositions are used with the Genitiv when the noun following them is accompanied by an article or an adjective. For example:

Die Daten werden mithilfe des neuen Computers analysiert.

(The data will be analyzed using the new computer.)

- When the noun has no article or adjective (typically uncountable nouns or indefinite plural nouns), that noun takes the dative case (Dativ). For example:

Die Straße wurde mittels Salz vom Eis befreit.

(The road was cleared of ice using salt.)

3. GENITIV = VON + DATIV - The three prepositions that take the Genitiv can also be replaced by von + Dativ:

Wir arbeiten mithilfe eines Experten an dem Projekt.

= Mithilfe von einem Experten arbeiten wir an dem Projekt.

(We are working on the project with the help of an expert.)4. ANHAND, MITTELS, MITHILFE can be replaced by MIT or DURCH in some cases with equivalent meaning.