Breakdown of Die Schule fängt am siebten Januar an.
anfangen
to start
die Schule
the school
der Januar
January
am
on the / at the
siebte
seventh
Questions & Answers about Die Schule fängt am siebten Januar an.
Why is it siebten instead of just siebte for "seventh"?
In German, ordinal numbers act like adjectives. They get an -n or -en ending when they follow a preposition like am (which triggers the dative case). Without am, "the seventh" is der siebte, but "on the seventh" becomes am siebten.
Why do we use am for "on the" before the date?
am is a contraction of the preposition an and the article dem. German uses an for days of the week and specific dates. Since dates trigger the dative case, the masculine article der (for the month) changes to dem, and an dem merges into am.
Why is an sitting by itself at the very end of the sentence?
The verb here is anfangen (to start or begin), which is a separable verb. In a normal main clause, the core part of the verb (fängt) takes the second position, and the prefix (an) is pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Why does fängt have an umlaut (ä) if the infinitive is anfangen?
anfangen is a strong (irregular) verb. For many strong verbs with an a in their base, the a changes to an ä for the "you" (du) and "he/she/it" (er/sie/es) forms. Since die Schule acts as "she" or "it" grammatically, we use fängt.
Are months like Januar always capitalized in German?
Yes! In German, all nouns are capitalized. This rule applies to all months of the year, days of the week, and seasons.
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