Breakdown of Wir treten am Wochenende in der Stadt auf.
in
in
wir
we
die Stadt
the city
das Wochenende
the weekend
am
on the / at the
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
auftreten
to perform
Questions & Answers about Wir treten am Wochenende in der Stadt auf.
Why is the order am Wochenende in der Stadt? In English, we usually put the place before the time.
In German, the general rule for adverbials is 'Time before Place'. The time information (am Wochenende) comes before the location information (in der Stadt). A helpful way to remember this is the acronym TeKaMoLo, which stands for the standard order: Time, Cause, Manner, and Place (Location).
Where does the auf at the very end of the sentence come from?
It is part of the separable verb auftreten, which means 'to perform' or 'to appear on stage'. In a present tense sentence like this, the prefix auf separates from the main verb (treten) and moves to the end of the sentence.
Why does the sentence use am for the weekend instead of just an?
am is a mandatory contraction of the preposition an and the dative article dem. We use the dative case here because it answers the question 'when?'. Since Wochenende is a neuter noun (das Wochenende), its article changes to dem, and an dem merges into am.
Why is it in der Stadt if the word for city is feminine (die Stadt)?
The preposition in requires the dative case when you are talking about a fixed location (answering the question 'where?' rather than 'to where?'). In the dative case, the feminine article die changes to der.
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