Sie verbringen den Urlaub am Meer.

In German, Sie with a capital S is the formal you.

So in Sie verbringen den Urlaub am Meer, Sie means you when speaking politely to one person or to several people.

Compare:

• Sie verbringen ... = You spend ... / You are spending ... (formal)
• sie verbringen ... = they spend ... / they are spending ...

The capitalization is important in writing because it helps distinguish formal you from they.

Verbringen is a common verb meaning to spend in the sense of spending time.

So:

• Zeit verbringen = to spend time
• den Urlaub verbringen = to spend the vacation/holiday

It is not the verb you would use for spending money. For money, German usually uses ausgeben:

• Ich gebe viel Geld aus. = I spend a lot of money.

So in this sentence, verbringen is used because the sentence is about spending a vacation, not money.

Because Sie here is the formal you, and formal Sie takes the same verb form as they.

Present tense of verbringen:

• ich verbringe
• du verbringst
• er/sie/es verbringt
• wir verbringen
• ihr verbringt
• Sie verbringen = you (formal)
• sie verbringen = they

So Sie verbringen is grammatically correct.

Because Urlaub is the direct object of the verb verbringen, so it must be in the accusative case.

The noun Urlaub is masculine:

• nominative: der Urlaub
• accusative: den Urlaub

Since the sentence answers what are you spending? → the vacation, German uses the accusative:

• Sie verbringen den Urlaub ...

This is a very common pattern:

• Ich lese den Roman.
• Wir kaufen den Tisch.
• Sie verbringen den Urlaub am Meer.

Urlaub usually means vacation or holiday in the sense of time off from work or school.

Depending on the variety of English:

• in American English, vacation is often the most natural translation
• in British English, holiday is often the most natural translation

So den Urlaub verbringen can be understood as:

• to spend the vacation
• to spend the holiday

It does not usually mean a specific public holiday like Christmas Day or Easter Monday. For that kind of holiday, German often uses Feiertag.

Am Meer means at the sea or more naturally in English, by the sea / at the seaside.

Am is a contraction of:

• an dem → am

So:

• an dem Meer → am Meer

This is very common in German. Other examples:

• im = in dem
• zum = zu dem
• beim = bei dem

In this sentence, am Meer is an idiomatic way to say by the sea.

This is about the difference between location and direction.

• am Meer = at/by the sea → location
• ans Meer = to the sea / toward the sea → movement toward a destination

In Sie verbringen den Urlaub am Meer, the idea is that the vacation takes place there, so German uses the location form:

• am Meer

If you were talking about going there, you might say:

• Sie fahren ans Meer. = You go to the seaside / to the sea.

So:

• vacation happens there → am Meer
• movement toward there → ans Meer

This is normal German main-clause word order:

1. Subject: Sie
2. Verb: verbringen
3. Object: den Urlaub
4. Place expression: am Meer

German main clauses usually put the conjugated verb in second position. That is the key rule.

So this sentence follows a very common pattern:

• Sie
  • verbringen
    • den Urlaub
      • am Meer

You could also move another element to the front for emphasis, but then the verb still stays in second position:

• Am Meer verbringen Sie den Urlaub.

That sounds more marked or contrastive.

Yes. In am Meer, the article comes from an dem, and dem is dative.

This is because an is a two-way preposition:

• it takes accusative when there is movement toward somewhere
• it takes dative when it describes location

Here it describes location, so German uses dative:

• am Meer = an dem Meer

Usually, no, not if you mean the sea.

In standard German:

• das Meer = sea
• der See = lake
• die See = sea (poetic, literary, or nautical usage)

For learners, the safest everyday choice for sea is das Meer.

So:

• am Meer = by the sea
• am See = by the lake

Those mean different things.

Yes, absolutely. It is a very natural and common expression.

Examples:

• Wir verbringen den Sommer in Italien.
• Sie verbringen die Feiertage bei ihrer Familie.
• Er verbringt viel Zeit mit seinen Kindern.

So den Urlaub verbringen is standard, idiomatic German.

Yes. The German present tense often covers both the English simple present and present progressive, depending on context.

So Sie verbringen den Urlaub am Meer could mean:

• You spend the vacation by the sea
• You are spending the vacation by the sea

Without more context, both are possible in English.

German does not usually need a separate form like English are spending.

There actually is an article in German, but it is hidden inside am:

• am = an dem

So the phrase literally contains the:

• am Meer = at the sea

In natural English, though, we often translate it more idiomatically as:

• by the sea
• at the seaside

So the German article is there grammatically, even if English may phrase it differently.