Questions & Answers about Im Juni und Juli ist es heiß.
Why do we use im before the months instead of just in?
In German, all months are masculine nouns like der Juni and der Juli. When you say that something happens in a certain month, you use the preposition in followed by the dative case. The word in merges with the dative article dem to become the contraction im. You will always use im before months!
Why does the sentence say ist es instead of es ist?
This is a great example of the German verb-second rule. The time phrase Im Juni und Juli takes up the first block or position in the sentence. Because the verb must always come second, ist goes next, which pushes the subject es into the third position.
Are months always capitalized in German?
Yes! Just like in English, months are always capitalized. In German, this perfectly matches the strict grammar rule that every single noun must start with a capital letter.
Juni and Juli sound very similar. Do native speakers ever mix them up?
They can, especially over the phone! Because they sound so alike, Germans will often say Juno for June and Julei for July when speaking in noisy environments to avoid any confusion.