Breakdown of Das Treffen findet am vierten November statt.
das Treffen
the meeting
der November
November
stattfinden
to take place
am
on the / at the
Questions & Answers about Das Treffen findet am vierten November statt.
Why does the number vierte have an -n ending here to become vierten?
The word am is short for an dem, which puts the phrase in the dative case. When an ordinal number like vierte (fourth) comes after am, it must take the dative ending -n, making it vierten.
Why do we use am before the date?
Just like English uses the word on for a specific day or date, German uses am for days of the week and exact dates.
Why is the word statt at the very end of the sentence?
This comes from the separable verb stattfinden, which means to take place. In a standard German sentence, the main part of the verb (findet) takes the second position, and the separable prefix (statt) gets pushed to the very end.
Is Treffen related to the verb for meeting someone?
Yes! The verb treffen means to meet. By capitalizing it and adding the neutral article das, it becomes the noun das Treffen, which simply means the meeting.