A method is disclosed for determining fault states in a half-bridge circuit having at least a first semiconductor switch and a second semiconductor switch are connected in series with one another and each controllable by a control signal to switch between an open and a closed switching state. For each of the first and second semiconductor switches, an actual switching state and a setpoint switching state are determined. A bridge short circuit in the half-bridge circuit is identified if both (a) the actual switching state of the first semiconductor switch is different than the setpoint switching state of the first semiconductor switch and (b) the actual switching state of the second semiconductor switch is different than the setpoint switching state of the second semiconductor switch.