Ich treffe mich morgen mit meinem Freund im Café.

Ich treffe mich morgen mit meinem Freund im Café.
I will meet my friend at the café tomorrow.

Breakdown of Ich treffe mich morgen mit meinem Freund im Café.

in
in
ich
I
mit
with
der Freund
the friend
morgen
tomorrow
mein
my
das Café
the café
sich treffen
to meet
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Questions & Answers about Ich treffe mich morgen mit meinem Freund im Café.

Why do I need the reflexive pronoun mich with treffen here?

Because in German the common way to say “to meet up” is the reflexive verb sich treffen. You must include the corresponding reflexive pronoun:

  • Infinitive: sich treffen (“to meet each other” or “to meet up”)
  • With ich as subject, the accusative reflexive pronoun is mich
    If you drop the reflexive, you could instead say ich treffe meinen Freund (“I meet my friend”), but that’s a non-reflexive construction.
What case and gender is meinem Freund, and why?

The preposition mit always takes the dative case. Freund is a masculine noun, so in dative singular:

  • Definite article: dem Freund
  • Possessive pronoun: mein → meinem
    Thus mit meinem Freund means “with my friend.”
Why is im Café written as one word instead of in dem Café?
im is simply the contraction of in + dem. Since in indicating location (where the meeting happens) requires the dative case here, dem Café becomes im Café.
German word order: why is morgen placed between treffe mich and mit meinem Freund?

German typically orders adverbials as Time–Manner–Place (TMP) after the verb. The main clause structure is:

  1. Subject (Ich)
  2. Verb (treffe)
  3. Reflexive pronoun (mich)
  4. Time (morgen)
  5. Manner/accompaniment (mit meinem Freund)
  6. Place (im Café)
How do I know if morgen means “tomorrow” or “morning”?
  • As a standalone time adverb, morgen means “tomorrow.”
  • To say “in the morning,” you use am Morgen (an + dem).
    Example:
    • Ich treffe ihn morgen. = “I’ll meet him tomorrow.”
    • Ich arbeite am Morgen. = “I work in the morning.”
Do I have to capitalize Café, even though it’s borrowed from French?
Yes. All German nouns are capitalized, including loanwords. That’s why Café has an initial capital letter.
Can I omit mich and say Ich treffe meinen Freund morgen im Café instead?

Absolutely. If you use treffen transitively, you drop the reflexive pronoun and make meinen Freund the direct object: • Ich treffe meinen Freund morgen im Café.
Both sentences are correct; sich treffen is just a very common reflexive way to express a planned meeting.