Breakdown of Ich möchte mit Ihnen persönlich sprechen.
ich
I
sprechen
to speak
möchten
would like
mit
with
persönlich
personal, in person
Questions & Answers about Ich möchte mit Ihnen persönlich sprechen.
How is the word persönlich formed in this sentence?
The word persönlich is an adjective acting as an adverb, derived from the noun die Person. It is formed by adding the suffix -lich. Notice that adding this suffix often causes the main vowel of the root noun to take an umlaut, which is why the o changes to ö.
Why is Ihnen capitalized here?
Ihnen is the dative form of the formal pronoun Sie (you). Formal pronouns are always capitalized in German to distinguish them from other pronouns. If it were written with a lowercase i, mit ihnen would mean 'with them' instead of 'with you'.
Why do we use the dative form Ihnen instead of the accusative form Sie?
The pronoun comes right after the preposition mit (with). In German, mit is a strict dative preposition, meaning it always forces the noun or pronoun that follows it into the dative case.
Why does sprechen appear at the very end of the sentence?
This is standard German word order when using a modal verb. The conjugated modal verb möchte takes the second position in the sentence, pushing the main action verb sprechen to the very end in its infinitive (unchanged) form.
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