Breakdown of Es ist spät, also gehen wir nach Hause.
sein
to be
wir
we
gehen
to go
nach Hause
home (as a direction)
also
so, therefore
Questions & Answers about Es ist spät, also gehen wir nach Hause.
Wait, does also mean 'so'? I thought it meant 'also'!
Also is a classic false friend. In German, it means 'so' or 'therefore'. If you want to say 'also' or 'too' in German, you need to use the word auch.
Why is the word order also gehen wir instead of also wir gehen?
Unlike coordinating conjunctions (like und or aber) which take Position 0 and leave the rest of the sentence's word order alone, also acts as a normal adverb taking up Position 1 in its clause. Since the verb must always take Position 2, gehen comes right after also, pushing the subject wir into Position 3.
Could I use denn here instead to keep the regular word order?
You couldn't use it in this exact sentence because denn means 'because' (giving a reason), while also means 'so' (giving a result). However, you could flip the sentence around to use it: Wir gehen nach Hause, denn es ist spät (We are going home because it is late). Since denn takes Position 0, the word order stays wir gehen.
Why do we say nach Hause to mean 'home'?
Nach Hause is a fixed idiom that means 'towards home' or 'homewards'. You use it whenever you are traveling to your home. The extra 'e' at the end of Haus is just a leftover from old German grammar. If you are already at home, you use a different fixed phrase: zu Hause.
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