Breakdown of Ich sende dir die genaue Adresse, damit wir uns leichter treffen können.
Questions & Answers about Ich sende dir die genaue Adresse, damit wir uns leichter treffen können.
The verb senden (to send) follows the pattern jemandem etwas senden—the person who receives something takes the dative case, and the thing sent is in the accusative.
- dir = dative (“to you”)
- die genaue Adresse = accusative (“the exact address”)
Yes. senden and schicken are largely interchangeable here:
- Ich sende dir die genaue Adresse…
- Ich schicke dir die genaue Adresse…
Both sound natural. senden is slightly more formal; schicken is more colloquial.
In German, adjectives before a noun must have endings that agree with gender, number, and case. Adresse is feminine (die Adresse) in the accusative singular, so the strong ending is -e:
- die genaue Adresse
If it were plural or another case, the ending would change accordingly.
Both express purpose, but there’s a key difference:
- damit introduces a subordinate clause with its own subject. Here, the main clause subject is ich, and the subordinate subject is wir.
- um…zu can only be used if the subject stays the same in both clauses. E.g. Ich schicke dir die Adresse, um dich zu informieren. (subject “ich” in both parts)
Since we switch from ich to wir, we need damit:
“Ich sende dir … , damit wir … können.”
In German, subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like dass, weil, damit etc. are separated from the main clause by a comma. So you always write:
“… die genaue Adresse, damit wir uns …”
In German subordinate clauses, all verbs move to the end. If there’s a modal verb plus an infinitive, the structure is:
… treffen (infinitive) können (modal)
So:
“…, damit wir uns leichter treffen können.”
treffen here is used reflexively as sich treffen (“to meet each other”). Reflexive verbs require a reflexive pronoun. For wir, it’s uns:
- wir treffen uns = “we meet (each other)”
Without uns, the meaning would be lost or unclear.
leichter is the comparative of leicht (“light”, “easy”) and means “more easily” or “easier”. einfacher (comparative of einfach, “simple”) is also possible:
- damit wir uns leichter treffen können (“so that we can meet more easily”)
- damit wir uns einfacher treffen können (“so that we can meet more simply”)
They’re very close in meaning, but leichter focuses on effort/effortlessness, while einfacher emphasizes simplicity. In everyday speech, both are acceptable here.