Breakdown of Sie sprechen miteinander, anstatt zu streiten.
sie
they
sprechen
to speak
streiten
to argue
zu
to (infinitive marker)
Questions & Answers about Sie sprechen miteinander, anstatt zu streiten.
Why is miteinander written as one word instead of mit einander?
Whenever the reciprocal pronoun einander (each other) follows a short preposition like mit (with), the two words merge into one. Therefore, it must be written as the single word miteinander. You will see this same merging pattern with other prepositions, such as füreinander (for each other) or voneinander (from each other).
Can I use the pronoun sich here instead, since sich can also sometimes mean each other?
If you wrote Sie sprechen mit sich, it would actually mean they are talking to themselves! While sich can sometimes act as each other in German, using einander (or a combination like miteinander) completely removes any ambiguity. It guarantees the meaning is reciprocal (doing something to each other) rather than reflexive (doing something to themselves).
Why is there a zu before the verb streiten?
This sentence uses the anstatt zu (instead of) construction. When you want to express instead of doing an action in German, you use anstatt, place the action verb in its infinitive (dictionary) form at the end of the clause, and put zu right in front of it.
Is the comma before anstatt strictly necessary?
Yes! In German, extended infinitive clauses that start with anstatt zu (instead of), um zu (in order to), or ohne zu (without) must always be separated from the main sentence by a comma.