Stell dich in die Reihe.

English Translation

Get in line.

Since “stellen” is not moving, I sincerely thought that “der Reihe” would be more appropriate.

“Put yourself INTO the line” might be a better translation. The concept of “into” is expressed with accusative case with the preposition “in”. If it were something like “I’m standing IN THE line”, then “der Reihe” would work, because you’re already in it instead of entering it.

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Since “stellen” is not moving, …

But “stellen” is moving!
“stehen” would be stationary.

So yeah, “stellen” might be best translated as “to put (into a standing position)”, and so it usually takes the accusative case for both the object and the location.
The exception would be if you put something else somewhere while standing:

Stell die Tasse (acc.) in der Küche (dat.) auf den Tisch (acc.). - Go to the kitchen, and when you’re there, put the cup onto the table.

But you could also say:
Stell die Tasse (acc.) in die Küche (acc.) auf den Tisch (acc.). - Emphasizes both the kitchen and the table as the destination.

And this also works:
Stell die Tasse (acc.) auf den Tisch (acc.) in der Küche (dat.). - … onto the table (that is located) in the kitchen.

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A great illustration of how much simpler English is compared to German sometimes :slight_smile: In English, this could be ambiguous: “put the cup on the table in the kitchen”.

Meaning 1: “take this cup that’s currently on this table right here, and go put it in the kitchen”

Meaning 2: “Take this cup and go put it on the table which is located in the kitchen”

The German case system allows us to be very precise in what exactly we mean, but it comes with the extra complexity of having to master accusative versus dative with these “two way” prepositions.

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English Translation

Get in line.

For people like me that learn German in Austria/Vienna, it doesn’t seem like anyone uses ‘Reihe’. I only hear people use ‘Schlange’. For queueing/standing in line, people would use ‘Schlange stehen’.

“Schlange” is not limited to Austria, you can use it anywhere. It’s just that “Schlange” is a special kind of “Reihe”, mostly used for a queue of people waiting for their turn, while “Reihe” is any kind of line where people line up in an orderly fashion, for example in the military, or maybe in sports class. The english “line” is kind of ambiguous, and when you imagine “get in line” is about standing for a muster in the military, then “Stell dich in die Reihe” is an appropriate translation.

As for queues, I would also likely use “Schlange” and “Schlange stehen”, but in this case there’s an even better alternative:
Stell dich (hinten) an.

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