Hin und her

You asked a question and we are happy to respond! We will devote this lesson to the adverbs/prefixes hin and her.

We frequently see the expression hin und her, which can be translated as "back and forth," "to and fro," or occasionally "there and back." But there often isn't a precise translation when they appear individually.

As you can see below, the prefixes hin and her create a more specific sense of direction in the meaning of a sentence. Generally, hin refers to movement away from the speaker, and her refers to movement towards the speaker

Also, wo ziehst du jetzt hin? -Nach Hamburg.

So, where are you moving to now? -To Hamburg.

Caption 2, Drei Leute - beim Kofferpacken
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Wo kommt eigentlich euer Interesse her an den Sepien?

Where does your interest in cuttlefish actually come from?

Caption 18, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen
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But that isn't all! Hin and her are also used to talk about time, with hin referring to the future and her to the past.

Rainer Roth, Saisonpremiere ist auch noch bisschen hin.

Rainer Roth, it's also still a while until the season premiere.

Caption 7, Fußball - Saisonpremiere
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Drei Jahre ist es schon her, dass er sich das letzte Mal ins Studio gesetzt hat,

It's already been three years since the last time that he sat himself down in the studio,

Caption 3, Max Herre - Will kein Frauentyp sein
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Further Learning

There are, of course, many instances of hin and her used on Yabla German. For some more vocabulary, you can refer to this page for words prefixed with hin, and this for words prefixed with her. For even more information, take a look at this lesson.