Wir empfangen heute Gäste.

we

Breakdown of Wir empfangen heute Gäste.

• heute: today
• der Gast: the guest
• empfangen: to receive; welcome

Questions & Answers about Wir empfangen heute Gäste.

Why is empfangen in the form empfangen and not something like empfängt?

Because the subject is wir (we), and the present-tense form for wir is the infinitive form without zu:

• ich empfange
• du empfängst
• er/sie/es empfängt
• wir empfangen
• ihr empfangt
• sie/Sie empfangen

So Wir empfangen is the correct present-tense form for we receive / we are receiving.

What case is Gäste, and why doesn’t it change?

Gäste is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of empfangen.

In this sentence:

• Wir = subject, nominative
• empfangen = verb
• Gäste = direct object, accusative

The reason it does not visibly change is that many plural nouns in German look the same in the nominative and accusative:

• nominative plural: die Gäste
• accusative plural: die Gäste

So the case is accusative, even though the noun form itself stays the same.

Why is there no article before Gäste?