How are herab and hinab used in a sentence? Do they have the same meaning as hin and her?
Ich gehe auf die Strasse hin(ab) - I am going down the street.
Ich komme auf die Strasse her(ab) - I am coming towards the street.
asked Oct 18 '13 at 21:16
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The first one would probably be "Ich gehe die Strasse (ent)lang.", the second one "Ich komme auf die Strasse zu"... using herab is also possible in some cases but those are limited and hard to describe – Emanuel Oct 19 '13 at 19:58
hinab and herab are more precise forms of hin and her, expressing some descent in the movement. But in most use cases they are not necessary; in your two examples hin and her are not necessary either.
You would use them for example when climbing a mountain or giving directions and wanting to be precise on whether you're ascending or descending.
