Breakdown of Trinken Sie zuerst Ihren Kaffee!
Sie
you (formal)
trinken
to drink
der Kaffee
the coffee
Ihren
your (formal, accusative masculine)
zuerst
first
Questions & Answers about Trinken Sie zuerst Ihren Kaffee!
Why does the sentence start with Trinken Sie instead of just the verb?
When giving a formal command to someone you address as Sie, you use the verb in its infinitive form and keep the pronoun Sie. However, the verb must come first to show it is a command. So, the statement Sie trinken (You drink) swaps around to become the command Trinken Sie! (Drink!).
Why is it Ihren Kaffee with an -en at the end?
Kaffee is a masculine noun (der Kaffee). Because it is the direct object of the sentence (the thing being drunk), it is in the accusative case. The formal word for "your" is Ihr, and when it comes before a masculine accusative noun, it gets the ending -en, making it Ihren.
Why is Ihren capitalized here?
It is the formal version of "your", which matches the formal "you" (Sie). Just like Sie is always capitalized to distinguish it from the words for "she" or "they" (sie), all of its possessive forms like Ihr and Ihren are also always capitalized, no matter where they appear in the sentence.
Could I use erste for "first" instead of zuerst?
Not in this case. Zuerst is an adverb that means "first of all" or "before doing something else". You would only use erste when it is an adjective attached directly to a noun, like der erste Kaffee (the first coffee).
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