Breakdown of Singt ihr am Abend im Theater?
ihr
you (informal plural)
singen
to sing
das Theater
the theater
im
in the (used with months) / in the (contraction of in + dem)
Questions & Answers about Singt ihr am Abend im Theater?
Why does am Abend come before im Theater? In English we usually say "in the theater in the evening".
In German, when you have multiple descriptive phrases in a sentence, time usually comes before place. A helpful rule for this is the acronym TeKaMoLo (Temporal, Kausal, Modal, Lokal), which means Time, Reason, Manner, Place. am Abend is the time (Temporal) and im Theater is the place (Lokal), so time goes first!
Why do we use am for the evening but im for the theater?
Both are shortened words combining a preposition with the dative "the" (dem). am is short for an dem, which is the standard preposition to use with days and parts of the day (like am Morgen, am Abend). im is short for in dem, which is used here because a theater is an enclosed building that you are inside of.
Could I say Singen Sie instead of Singt ihr?
Yes, but it changes how formal you are being. Singt ihr uses the informal plural "you" (like "are you guys singing?"), which you use with a group of friends or children. If you were asking a professional choir or adults you don't know well, you would use the formal Singen Sie.
Why is the verb Singt at the very beginning of the sentence?