Word
Kommt schnell herunter, das Abendessen ist fertig!
Meaning
Come down quickly, dinner is ready!
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Kommt schnell herunter, das Abendessen ist fertig!
sein
to be
schnell
fast, quickly
kommen
to come
fertig
ready / finished
Questions & Answers about Kommt schnell herunter, das Abendessen ist fertig!
Why does the speaker use herunter instead of hinunter here?
The prefix her- shows movement towards the speaker, while unter means down. Since the speaker says Kommt (come), they are already downstairs and asking others to come down towards them. If they were upstairs telling people to go down away from them, they would use hinunter.
Why is the verb Kommt instead of Komm?
Kommt is the command form (imperative) for ihr (you all, informal). The speaker is calling multiple people to dinner. If they were calling just one person, they would say Komm schnell herunter.
Is herunter acting as a separable prefix in this sentence?
Yes, the full infinitive verb is herunterkommen (to come down). In a command, the conjugated part of the verb (Kommt) moves to the first position, and the separable prefix (herunter) is pushed to the end of its clause.
I know Essen means food. Is Abendessen just a combination of words?
Exactly! It combines Abend (evening) and Essen (food or meal) to literally mean the evening meal, or dinner. German frequently sticks words together like this to build new nouns.