Breakdown of Wir freuen uns auf das Festival.
wir
we
sich freuen auf
to look forward to (with auf)
das Festival
the festival
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Questions & Answers about Wir freuen uns auf das Festival.
Why does this sentence use auf to mean "looking forward to"?
The verb sich freuen (to be glad or happy) pairs with specific prepositions to change its meaning. The combination sich freuen auf is a fixed phrase that always means "to look forward to" something in the future.
I have also seen sich freuen über. Could we use über here instead of auf?
Not if you want to say you are looking forward to it! You use sich freuen auf for future events. You use sich freuen über to say you are happy about something happening right now or in the past (like being happy about a gift you just received).
Why is the word uns in this sentence?
The verb sich freuen is a reflexive verb, meaning it requires a pronoun that reflects back on the subject. Because the subject here is wir (we), you must use the matching reflexive pronoun uns (ourselves).
Why is it das Festival? Does the preposition auf take the accusative case here?
Yes! When a verb has a fixed preposition, you have to memorize which case comes after it. For sich freuen auf, the preposition auf always requires the accusative case. Since Festival is a neuter noun, its accusative form is just das Festival.