Breakdown of Er kann perfekt Englisch sprechen.
er
he
sprechen
to speak
können
can / to be able to
Englisch
English
perfekt
perfect / perfectly
Questions & Answers about Er kann perfekt Englisch sprechen.
Why is sprechen at the very end of the sentence?
This is the famous German "sentence bracket" (Satzklammer). When you use a modal verb like können (can), the modal verb takes the second position in the sentence (kann). The main action verb (sprechen) gets pushed all the way to the end in its basic dictionary form (the infinitive). Together, they act like a bracket around the extra information (perfekt Englisch).
Why is the modal verb kann instead of "könnt"?
können (to be able to / can) is an irregular modal verb. In the singular forms for ich (I) and er/sie/es (he/she/it), the "ö" changes to an "a" and there is no extra ending added. That gives us er kann (he can).
In English we say "perfectly", so why doesn't perfekt have a special ending here?
In English, we add "-ly" to a word to describe how an action is done. In German, it is much easier: you just use the basic adjective! The word perfekt does double duty, meaning both "perfect" and "perfectly".
Why is Englisch capitalized?
In German, names of languages are nouns, and all nouns must be capitalized. So Englisch gets a capital letter.
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