Breakdown of Heute esse ich in der Kantine eine Suppe mit Tomaten und Gurken.
Questions & Answers about Heute esse ich in der Kantine eine Suppe mit Tomaten und Gurken.
German main clauses follow the “V2 rule”: the conjugated verb must be the second element in the sentence. If you start with something other than the subject (here Heute), the verb comes next, and then the subject. So the structure is:
- Heute (time adverbial)
- esse (finite verb)
- ich (subject)
If you began with Ich, you’d say Ich esse heute…, but putting Heute first simply pushes ich to third position.
The preposition in has two uses:
- With dative, it expresses location (“in” = inside).
- With accusative, it expresses movement (“into”).
Since you’re saying where you eat (location), you use the dative. Kantine is feminine (die Kantine), so its dative singular form is der Kantine. Hence in der Kantine.
German has no distinct present-continuous tense. The simple present (ich esse) covers both “I eat” and “I am eating.” If you want to stress “right now,” you can add an adverb like gerade:
Ich esse gerade in der Kantine eine Suppe mit Tomaten und Gurken.