entlang

Entlang is a German directional postposition that means along or along the length of something. It denotes movement in a direction parallel to a referenced line or boundary or, when used in describing a position, alignment beside it. As a postposed element, it follows the noun it accompanies rather than preceding it.

In standard usage, the case of the noun that precedes entlang can vary with the meaning. For movement or direction, the phrase typically appears with the accusative: den Fluss entlang, Wir gehen den Fluss entlang. For emplacement or description, a dative or other case form of the noun can occur in combination with a different syntactic arrangement: Wir stehen am Fluss entlang or Der Weg verläuft entlang des Flusses. In everyday speech, the accusative construction is the most common for expressive movement along a route.

Entlang is frequently used with geographic features, streets, rivers, coastlines, and similar boundaries. It can be combined with compound nouns and is versatile for describing routes and paths, such as Der Fußweg verläuft entlang der Küste or Wir wanderten entlang der Bahnstrecke. While the primary sense is directional, some variations exist regionally, and preference for case and word order may differ between spoken and written German.

Etymology traces entlang to Germanic roots meaning along, with cognates in related languages reflecting the same spatial relationship. In contemporary grammar reference works, entlang is listed as a postposition that governs the form of the preceding noun in accordance with movement or location, and it is commonly taught as part of standard German prepositional usage.