Breakdown of Sie verabschiedet sich von den Kollegen.
sie
she
der Kollege
the colleague
sich verabschieden von
to say goodbye to
Questions & Answers about Sie verabschiedet sich von den Kollegen.
Why does the German sentence use von when the English translation says "to"?
The verb sich verabschieden (to say goodbye) always takes the preposition von. While in English you say goodbye "to" someone, in German you literally "take leave from" them. Because von is a dative preposition, the noun that follows must be in the dative case.
Why is the word sich included here?
The verb sich verabschieden is a reflexive verb. In German, saying goodbye requires a reflexive pronoun, as if you are "taking yourself away" from the group. Since the subject is Sie (she), the matching reflexive pronoun is sich.
Why is it den Kollegen and not die Kollegen?
The preposition von always forces the following noun into the dative case. The normal plural for colleagues is die Kollegen, but in the dative plural, the plural article die changes to den.
Could Sie at the beginning of the sentence mean "they" or formal "you"?
No, because of the verb ending. If Sie meant "they" or "you" (formal), the verb would take the plural form: Sie verabschieden sich. Because the verb is verabschiedet, we know Sie has to mean "she".
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