Breakdown of Wir können im Sommer nach Italien reisen.
wir
we
reisen
to travel
nach
to / towards
Italien
Italy
können
can / to be able to
im
in the (used with months) / in the (contraction of in + dem)
der Sommer
the summer
Questions & Answers about Wir können im Sommer nach Italien reisen.
Why does the sentence use im Sommer instead of just in Sommer?
In German, all four seasons (der Frühling, der Sommer, der Herbst, der Winter) are masculine words. To say "in the summer", you use the preposition in followed by the dative word for "the", which is dem. German speakers almost always combine in + dem into the short word im.
Why do we use nach Italien to say "to Italy"?
When you are traveling to a city, country, or continent that does not use a "the" before its name (like Italien, Deutschland, or Europa), you use the preposition nach. If you were traveling to a country that does have an article, like Switzerland (die Schweiz), you would use in instead.
Why is reisen (to travel) placed at the very end of the sentence?
This is because of the verb können (can). können is a modal verb. When you use a modal verb in a standard sentence, it takes the second position (Wir können...), and it pushes the main action verb (reisen) all the way to the end in its dictionary form.
Could I say Wir können nach Italien im Sommer reisen instead?
People would understand you, but it sounds slightly unnatural. German strongly prefers a rule often called "Time, Manner, Place". This means time expressions (like im Sommer) should generally come before location expressions (like nach Italien).
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