Breakdown of Du musst mir sofort zuhören!
du
you (informal singular)
müssen
to have to, must
mir
me / to me (dative)
zuhören
to listen (to someone/something)
sofort
immediately
Questions & Answers about Du musst mir sofort zuhören!
Why is it mir instead of mich?
The verb zuhören (to listen to) is a special verb that always requires the dative case for the person you are listening to. Because of this, you must use the dative pronoun mir (to me) instead of the accusative mich.
Where is the word for 'to' in the German sentence?
In English we say 'listen TO me', but in German, that 'to' is already built into the meaning of the verb zuhören and the use of the dative case. You do not need to add an extra preposition in front of mir here.
Why is zuhören at the very end of the sentence?
This happens because of the modal verb musst (must). In German, when you use a modal verb, it takes the standard second position in the sentence and pushes the main action verb (zuhören) to the very end in its dictionary form (infinitive).
I learned that zuhören is a separable verb. Why isn't the zu split off here?
You are exactly right, zuhören is a separable verb! However, separable verbs only split when they are the main, conjugated verb in the sentence. Because the modal verb musst pushes zuhören to the end as an infinitive, the prefix zu- stays firmly attached.
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