Wir spielen regelmäßig im Garten.

We play regularly in the garden.

Breakdown of Wir spielen regelmäßig im Garten.

• spielen: to play
• in: in
• dem: the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
• wir: we

Questions & Answers about Wir spielen regelmäßig im Garten.

Why do we use im Garten instead of in dem Garten?

im is simply the contracted form of in dem. Germans often shorten in dem to im when in is followed by the masculine or neuter dative article dem. So

• in dem Garten = im Garten

This contraction is very common and perfectly normal in everyday speech and writing.

Why is Garten in the dative case here, not the accusative?

German prepositions can govern different cases depending on meaning. For in:
• Dative (wo? = location) – when you stay or play in a place
• Accusative (wohin? = direction) – when you move into a place

Here, spielen implies staying (we stay and play in the garden), so you answer “wo?” and use the dative case:
• im Garten (in + dative)

If you wanted to say “We play into the garden” (movement), you’d use accusative:
• in den Garten spielen (but this is uncommon – you’d normally say “Wir spielen im Garten.”)

What part of speech is regelmäßig, and why does it come after the verb?

regelmäßig is an adverb of frequency (it tells us how often something happens). In German main clauses, the usual position for an adverb of frequency is:
Subject – Verb – Adverb of frequency – Place – etc.

So in
Wir (subject) spielen (verb) regelmäßig (frequency) im Garten (place).

You could also front the adverb, but then you must keep the verb in second position:
Regelmäßig spielen wir im Garten.