Breakdown of Wir reisen im Juni nach Italien.
wir
we
reisen
to travel
nach
to / towards
Italien
Italy
im
in the (used with months) / in the (contraction of in + dem)
der Juni
June
Questions & Answers about Wir reisen im Juni nach Italien.
Why do we use im before Juni?
In German, to say something happens in a certain month, you use the preposition in. Because all months are masculine nouns, we use the dative case here, turning it into in dem. This almost always contracts into the short word im. So, "in June" is always im Juni.
The English translation says "We are traveling", but the German uses the simple present tense (Wir reisen). Why?
German doesn't have an "-ing" form (continuous tense) like English. Wir reisen can mean both "We travel" and "We are traveling". Also, German frequently uses the present tense to talk about firm future plans, as long as a time word (like im Juni) makes the future context clear.
Why is it nach Italien instead of zu Italien for "to Italy"?
When traveling to a geographical destination like a city, country, or continent that doesn't use "the" in its name, you must use the preposition nach. The preposition zu is mostly used when going to a person, a specific building, or a local place within a town.
Could I change the word order and say Wir reisen nach Italien im Juni?
It is strongly preferred to say Wir reisen im Juni nach Italien. In German sentence structure, information about time (im Juni) almost always comes before information about a destination or place (nach Italien). A helpful rule of thumb to remember is "Time before Place".
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