Breakdown of Wir besuchen die Großeltern am Wochenende.
wir
we
besuchen
to visit
am Wochenende
at the weekend
die Großeltern
the grandparents (plural only)
Questions & Answers about Wir besuchen die Großeltern am Wochenende.
Why does the sentence use besuchen to mean "are visiting"?
German doesn't have a continuous tense like the English "-ing" form. You use the simple present tense (besuchen) for both "we visit" and "we are visiting". The context tells you which one is meant.
Where does the word am come from in am Wochenende?
am is a contraction of the preposition an (at/on) and the dative article dem. When talking about days of the week or the weekend, German uses an. Because das Wochenende is a neuter noun, its article changes to dem in the dative case to express a specific point in time answering the question "when?". an + dem combines into am.
Could I put am Wochenende somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes! German word order is flexible as long as the conjugated verb stays in the second position. You could say Am Wochenende besuchen wir die Großeltern to put focus on the time. Notice how besuchen stays in the second spot, so the subject wir has to move behind it. You could also put the time before the object: Wir besuchen am Wochenende die Großeltern.
What case is die Großeltern in here?
It is in the accusative case because the grandparents are the direct object (the people receiving the action of being visited). The plural accusative article is die, which looks exactly the same as the nominative (subject) form.
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