Breakdown of Die Reise fängt am neunten Juli an.
anfangen
to start
die Reise
the trip / the journey
der Juli
July
am
on the / at the
Questions & Answers about Die Reise fängt am neunten Juli an.
Why does neunten end in "-n" instead of just being neunte?
When you use am (on the) for a date, the ordinal number must be in the dative case, which adds an -n to the end. The basic word for "ninth" is neunte, but after am, it always becomes neunten.
What exactly is am made of in this sentence?
am is a contraction of the preposition an (on/at) and the dative article dem (the). In German, you always use am for days and dates, similar to how we say "on the" in English.
Why is the word an sitting all by itself at the end of the sentence?
This is because the verb for "to start" is anfangen, which is a separable verb. In a normal main clause, the main part of the verb (fängt) takes the second position, and the prefix (an) gets pushed to the very end.
Why does fängt have an umlaut (ä) here?
anfangen is an irregular (strong) verb. When you conjugate it for the third-person singular (like die Reise, which is a "she/it"), the vowel changes from a to ä, making it fängt.