34 Going places (‘zu’ und ‘in’ and ‘nach’)

Going places (‘zu’ und ‘in’ and ‘nach’)

All of these three German prepositions mean ‘to’ as in ‘toward’, but they are used in different contexts:

1) Going to geographical names always requires ‘nach’ unless you are talking about a country that happens to have article in German. There are only a handful of them: die USA, die Schweiz, der Iran, etc.. then use ‘in’:

• e.g. nach Deutschland, nach Berlin, in die Schweiz, in die USA
  

2) Going to people and places (as in place names, e.g. Ikea, Walmart, Starbucks):

•  always use ‘zu’: wir gehen zu Oma/Lidl (name of a supermarket)= we are going to grandma/Lidl;
  

3) When going inside places that are NOT names, use ‘in’:

• Ich gehe in die Bank. =  I am going to the bank.
  
• Gehst du morgen in die Uni? = Are you going to the university tomorrow?