Breakdown of Peter will jeden Tag arbeiten, Tom dagegen schläft bis Mittag.
arbeiten
to work
schlafen
to sleep
Peter
Peter
Tom
Tom
wollen
to want
der Mittag
noon
jeder
everyone / each
bis
until / to (as far as)
der Tag
the day
dagegen
on the other hand, by contrast
Questions & Answers about Peter will jeden Tag arbeiten, Tom dagegen schläft bis Mittag.
Why does the sentence use will if it means "wants to" and not future tense?
In German, will is the "he/she/it" form of the modal verb wollen, which means "to want". If you want to say that Peter "will" work in the future, you must use the verb werden: Peter wird jeden Tag arbeiten. This is a very common false friend!
Why is it jeden Tag rather than the dictionary form jeder Tag?
Time expressions that answer "when?" or "how often?" are put in the accusative case when there is no preposition. Because Tag is masculine, jeder changes to the accusative form jeden.
Doesn't dagegen mess up the verb-second rule in the second clause?
It looks like it! Usually, the verb is exactly in the second position (Tom schläft dagegen bis Mittag). However, dagegen (on the other hand) can be tucked right behind a noun to emphasize a direct contrast. Here, Tom dagegen acts as a single combined block in position one, so the verb schläft is still technically in position two.
Why is there no article after bis in bis Mittag?
The preposition bis is usually used without an article when it comes to standard times of day, days of the week, or months. If you wanted to use an article, you would need to add a second preposition, forming bis zum Mittag.
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