Breakdown of Du musst sofort nach Italien kommen.
du
you (informal singular)
kommen
to come
nach
to / towards
Italien
Italy
Questions & Answers about Du musst sofort nach Italien kommen.
Why do we use nach for 'to' in this sentence?
In German, the preposition nach is strictly used when you are traveling 'to' a specific city, country, or continent that doesn't use a definite article (like Italien, Deutschland, or Berlin).
This lesson is about prepositions that take the dative case. Where is the dative case in nach Italien?
It is invisible here! Italien is a neuter noun, and like most countries in German, it doesn't use an article in everyday sentences. Because there is no article to change into the dative form (like dem), you can't visually see the case change, but grammatically the dative case is still being applied by nach.
Why is kommen at the very end of the sentence?
This happens because of the modal verb musst (must). When a sentence uses a modal verb, it takes the second position in the sentence and pushes the main action verb (kommen) all the way to the very end in its dictionary form (the infinitive).
Could I change the word order and say 'Du musst nach Italien sofort kommen'?
It sounds much more natural to say sofort nach Italien. In German sentence structure, expressions of time (like sofort, meaning 'immediately') almost always come before expressions of place (like nach Italien). This is often called the 'Time before Place' rule.