statt

See also: Statt and stått

Faroese

Adjective

statt

neuter nominative and accusative singular of staddur

Verb

statt

imperative singular of fara

German

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃtat/
Audio (file)
Homophone: Stadt
Rhymes: -at

Preposition

statt (plus genitive)

instead of

Usage notes

Colloquial German has a general aversion towards the genitive case, as it has died out in the natural German dialects. A dative or dative construction is used instead. This is especially common, and may bleed into standard language, in the following cases:

If the genitive would be indistinguishable from the nominative in form, which is the case with plural nouns not preceded by an article, determiner, or adjective:

Statt Röcken trugen wir Hosen. – "Instead of skirts, we wore trousers."

If a possessive genitive is preceding the referent of the preposition.

Statt Peters rotem Hemd trug ich mein gelbes. – "Instead of Peter's red shirt, I wore my yellow one." (→ statt Peters roten Hemdes is possible, but unusual)

Masculine and neuter singular nouns not preceded by an article, determiner, or adjective may take inflectional -(e)s, although this is now quite formal. In current German, the genitive ending has become optional and is dropped by most speakers in most situations.

Statt München(s) wurde Frankfurt ausgewählt. – "Instead of Munich, Frankfurt was chosen."

Statt Anton hat sie Peter geheiratet. – "Instead of Anton, she married Peter."

Personal pronouns may have a genitive form after statt: e.g. statt meiner ("instead of me"), statt seiner ("instead of him"). However, this is dated and very formal. It is preferable to say: an meiner (seiner) Stelle.

Related terms

anstatt

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

statt

(non-standard since 2012) imperative of standa