Breakdown of Feiern wir den Geburtstag im November oder Dezember?
wir
we
der Geburtstag
the birthday
feiern
to celebrate
oder
or
im
in the (used with months) / in the (contraction of in + dem)
der November
November
der Dezember
December
Questions & Answers about Feiern wir den Geburtstag im November oder Dezember?
Why does it say im November instead of just in November?
In German, months are masculine nouns (like der November). When we say that something happens in a certain month, we use the preposition in plus the dative word dem. In and dem combine into the short word im. You will always use im before months!
Do I need to repeat im before Dezember?
No, you do not have to. Just like in English, you can use im once before the first month and it applies to both. Saying im November oder im Dezember would also be grammatically correct, but leaving out the second im sounds very natural.
The translation says 'Are we celebrating', but doesn't feiern just mean 'celebrate'?
Exactly! German does not have an '-ing' form (continuous tense) like English does. Feiern wir can mean both 'Do we celebrate' and 'Are we celebrating'. Also, German frequently uses the present tense to talk about future plans, like an upcoming birthday.
Why is it den Geburtstag and not der Geburtstag?
Geburtstag (birthday) is a masculine noun. Because it is the direct object of the sentence (the thing being celebrated), it must be in the accusative case. For masculine nouns, the word for 'the' changes from der to den in the accusative case.
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