Learn Hardcore German: Ich renne oft im Park, aber heute renne ich ohne Schuhe auf dem weichen Teppich. - I often run in the park, but today I run without shoes on the soft carpet.

im is simply the contraction of in dem used before masculine or neuter nouns in the dative case. It’s very common in spoken and written German to merge them into one word.

Why is Park in the dative case with im?

The preposition in is a Wechselpräposition (two-way preposition). When it indicates location (answering “wo?”), you use the dative case. Since you are running inside the park (a location), you say im Park (dative).

Why do we say auf dem weichen Teppich and not auf den?

auf is also a two-way preposition. Here it shows where you are running (location), so you use dative. Teppich is masculine, so the dative singular article is dem. That gives you auf dem Teppich.

Why does weich get the ending -en in weichen Teppich?

With a definite article that already marks gender and case (here dem), adjectives take the weak declension. In dative masculine singular, the weak ending is -en, so weich → weichen.

Why is there no article before Schuhe in ohne Schuhe?

The preposition ohne (“without”) takes the accusative. When talking about something in a general sense—running without any shoes—you normally drop the article. If you meant specific shoes, you could say ohne die Schuhe.

Why is Schuhe accusative even though it looks like the nominative form?

In German, plural nouns often have the same form in nominative and accusative. Since ohne requires accusative, Schuhe here is simply plural accusative, but it coincides in form with the nominative.

Can you omit ich renne in the second clause to avoid repetition?

No. Each main clause in German must follow the Verb‑second (V2) rule. Even if the subject and verb are the same, you must include the verb in second position and the subject somewhere after. That’s why you say aber heute renne ich … rather than dropping renne.

Why does heute come before ich in the second clause?

German main clauses allow any single element in first position, but the finite verb must remain in second position. Placing heute first gives emphasis to “today,” so the order becomes heute (1) renne (2) ich (3) …

Why is oft placed immediately after renne in the first clause?

As a frequency adverb, oft typically follows the conjugated verb in main clauses. So the pattern is Subject–Verb–Adverb of frequency–Rest: Ich renne oft im Park.