Adjectives with 'auf' and the accusative
In English, when you feel a strong emotion towards someone or something, you link the adjective with prepositions like of, at, or with. You are proud of a friend, angry at a neighbor, or jealous of a colleague. If you translate these prepositions directly into German, you will often make a mistake.
Instead of mixing and matching different prepositions, German groups several emotional adjectives together. When you direct feelings of pride, anger, jealousy, or curiosity at a target, you connect them using the preposition auf followed by the accusative case.
Adjectives describing pride and anger are some of the most common words that use this pattern. In English, you might be proud of someone or angry with them. In German, you point these feelings at the person using auf. Because the emotion is directed at a target, the person or thing receiving the emotion must be in the accusative case.
Words in this group include stolz, as well as a variety of words for anger like böse, sauer, wütend, and zornig. Remember that auf is a two-way preposition, but when it is used figuratively with these adjectives, it always takes the accusative case.
Another cluster of adjectives that rely on auf deals with wanting what someone else has or wanting to know more. This includes words like eifersüchtig, neidisch, and neugierig.
English speakers often struggle here because the English equivalents take a wide mix of prepositions, such as jealous of, envious of, or curious about. By remembering that German treats these emotions as a focused energy directed at a target, you can save yourself the trouble of memorizing a different preposition for each word. Just use auf and the accusative.
There is an important distinction to make when you talk about negative emotions like anger. The preposition auf is used for the direct target of your anger, which is usually a person. However, if you want to state the reason or the event that caused your anger, you will often use the preposition über.
For example, you can be angry at your brother using auf, but you are angry about the broken window using über. Sticking to auf for the person receiving your emotion is a reliable rule of thumb.
Finally, you might also hear the adjective gespannt used with this exact same pattern. While its literal meaning describes something physically taut, when combined with auf and the accusative, it means excited or expectant about an upcoming event.
When directing feelings of pride, anger, jealousy, envy, or curiosity at a specific person or thing, forget the English prepositions. Instead, use the German preposition auf followed by the accusative case to show where your emotion is aimed.