Breakdown of Sprecht ihr über das Festival?
ihr
you (informal plural)
das Festival
the festival
sprechen über
to talk about
Questions & Answers about Sprecht ihr über das Festival?
Why is it das Festival here? Doesn't über sometimes take the dative case?
The verb sprechen (to speak/talk) uses the fixed preposition über when you talk about something. When a verb demands a specific preposition like this, the preposition almost always forces the accusative case, regardless of rules about location or movement. Since Festival is a neuter noun, its accusative form remains das Festival.
I thought the verb sprechen changes its vowel to an "i". Why is it sprecht here instead of spricht?
You are thinking of the forms for du (sprichst) and er/sie/es (spricht). The vowel change from "e" to "i" only happens in those singular forms. For the plural ihr (you all), the verb goes back to its regular stem vowel, making it sprecht.
Can I use von instead of über to say "about the festival"?
Yes, you could also say Sprecht ihr von dem Festival? (since von always takes the dative case). However, sprechen über usually implies having a more detailed conversation or discussion about the topic, while sprechen von often just means mentioning it briefly.
Why is there no word for "are" in the German sentence?
German does not have an "-ing" form (the present continuous tense) like English does. The single verb form sprecht covers both "do you talk" and "are you talking". To ask a yes/no question in German, you just put the conjugated verb at the very beginning of the sentence.
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