In a method for priming a fuel metering device for an internal combustion engine with a piston arranged in a combustion chamber and driving a crankshaft that is rotatably supported in a crankcase, with a fuel pump that conveys fuel from a fuel tank to a metering valve that opens into a metering chamber at alternating operating pressure, and with a control unit that calculates and controls timing for the metering valve for metering a fuel quantity corresponding to a load situation of the internal combustion engine, the metering valve is kept open, independent of the calculated timing for the metering valve, for a priming duration in a starting phase of the internal combustion engine when the alternating operating pressure of the metering chamber at the mouth of the metering valve is negative and when a fuel system pressure in the fuel metering device is below a target pressure.