Word
Beeil dich, wir müssen abfahren!
Meaning
Hurry up, we have to leave!
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Beeil dich, wir müssen abfahren!
wir
we
dich
you (singular, informal)
müssen
to have to, must
abfahren
to depart
Questions & Answers about Beeil dich, wir müssen abfahren!
Why is there a dich right after beeil?
In German, the verb for "to hurry" is reflexive: sich beeilen. This means you literally have to say "hurry yourself". Because you are telling one person to hurry (using the informal du), the matching accusative reflexive pronoun is dich.
Why is the verb conjugated as beeil instead of beeilst?
This is the imperative (command) form. When giving a command to someone you address as du, you take the normal conjugation (du beeilst) and drop the -st, leaving just beeil. You might sometimes see it with an extra -e on the end (beeile dich), but dropping it is very common in everyday German.
Why is abfahren placed at the very end of the sentence?
The second half of the sentence uses the modal verb müssen (must / have to). In German, a modal verb pushes the main action verb (abfahren) to the very end of the sentence in its original dictionary form (the infinitive).
Since abfahren is a separable verb, shouldn't the ab part be separated?