Breakdown of Am Abend feiern wir zusammen, und viele Gäste trinken Bier.
und
and
trinken
to drink
wir
we
zusammen
together
viel
much / a lot
feiern
to celebrate
das Bier
the beer
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
der Abend
the evening
der Gast
the guest
Questions & Answers about Am Abend feiern wir zusammen, und viele Gäste trinken Bier.
Why do we say am Abend instead of using the German word for "in"?
In German, the preposition an is used for days of the week and parts of the day (like Morgen, Nachmittag, and Abend). Because Abend is a masculine noun in the dative case here, an merges with the article dem to make am. (The only exception to remember is in der Nacht!)
Why is the word order feiern wir instead of wir feiern?
This is the verb-second rule in action. Because the sentence starts with the time phrase Am Abend, which takes up the first position, the verb feiern must come exactly second. This pushes the subject wir into the third position.
Does the word und affect the word order of the second half of the sentence?
No, und is a coordinating conjunction, which means it links two independent clauses without changing their word order. You can think of und as taking "position zero". After it, the second clause starts normally: the subject (viele Gäste) is in position one, and the verb (trinken) is in position two.
Why does viele have an -e at the end?
Viele (many) is an indefinite pronoun. When it sits right in front of a noun, it acts like an adjective and has to match the noun's case and plural form. Here, Gäste is plural and is the subject of the second clause (nominative case), so viele takes the standard plural ending -e.
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