This contribution uses an English-German Translation Corpus as a database for translations. It demonstrates how such a database can be used for translations by giving translators guidelines and examples when they have to choose between various expressions. It analyses the variation of English local prepositions and their German equivalents by distinguishing between original, extended, figurative and idiomatic usages. The article also shows that although German and English are closely related languages their use of prepositions varies a lot in detail. This is a new form of 'dictionary' on the Internet, where general rules on using English prepositions, combined with concrete contrastive examples, can be useful.