Breakdown of Sie will am siebzehnten oder am achtzehnten Juli feiern.
sie
she
feiern
to celebrate
wollen
to want
oder
or
der Juli
July
am
on the / at the
siebzehnte
seventeenth
achtzehnte
eighteenth
Questions & Answers about Sie will am siebzehnten oder am achtzehnten Juli feiern.
Why do the ordinal numbers end in -ten (siebzehnten, achtzehnten) instead of just -te?
Ordinal numbers between 1st and 19th usually add -te to the base number (like der siebzehnte). However, this sentence uses am, which is short for an + dem. Because dem triggers the dative case, the ending changes to -en, making it am siebzehnten.
I know the number seven is sieben. Why is it spelled siebzehnten here instead of siebenzehnten?
Just like English has slight spelling changes for some numbers in the teens (like "fifteen" instead of "fiveteen"), German drops a couple of letters for 16 and 17. The -en is dropped from sieben, making it siebzehn. (Similarly, the -s is dropped from sechs to make sechzehn).
Does will here mean "will" (future tense) like it does in English?
No, this is a very common "false friend"! The German verb wollen (and its conjugated form will) means "to want". If you wanted to say "She will celebrate" in the future tense, you would use the verb werden: Sie wird feiern.
Why is feiern (to celebrate) at the very end of the sentence?
This is because of the modal verb will (wants to). In German, a conjugated modal verb takes the normal second position in the sentence, but it kicks the main action verb (feiern) all the way to the end in its infinitive (dictionary) form.
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