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Questions & Answers about Die Muschel-Sammlung erinnert mich an jede Reise, egal zu welcher Jahreszeit.
Why is Muschel-Sammlung written with a hyphen, and why are both parts capitalized?
In German, all nouns are capitalized. Muschel-Sammlung is a compound noun combining Muschel (shell) and Sammlung (collection). The hyphen here is optional and used for clarity or style—officially you could also write Muschelsammlung as one word. When you hyphenate, each part remains capitalized.
What role does mich play in this sentence, and which case is it?
mich is the direct object (“me”) of the verb erinnert. It’s in the accusative case. German uses accusative for the person being reminded in the construction jemanden an etwas erinnern (“to remind someone of something”).
Why is the verb erinnert followed by an, and what does this combination mean?
erinnern an is a fixed prepositional verb meaning “to remind (of).” You need an plus a noun or pronoun to complete its meaning. Literally, Die Sammlung erinnert mich an jede Reise means “The collection reminds me of every trip.”
Why is it an jede Reise (accusative) and not an jeder Reise (dative)?
The preposition an can take dative or accusative depending on context. With the verb erinnern, it always uses the accusative: you’re being reminded of something (movement/attention toward an idea), so you say an jede Reise.
Why does mich come before an jede Reise in the sentence?
German word order generally places pronoun objects before noun objects or prepositional phrases. Here, the pronoun mich (accusative object) precedes the prepositional phrase an jede Reise for natural flow.
Why is there a comma before egal?
egal zu welcher Jahreszeit is an adverbial clause (a parenthetical expression) meaning “no matter which season.” In German, such adverbial or subordinate clauses are separated from the main clause by a comma.
What does egal mean in this context?
Here egal functions like “regardless” or “no matter.” The full phrase egal zu welcher Jahreszeit means “regardless of which season” or “no matter the time of year.”
Why is it zu welcher Jahreszeit instead of in welcher Jahreszeit?
The preposition zu with egal is the idiomatic choice: zu welcher Jahreszeit is a fixed pattern meaning “at whatever season.” You could say in jeder Jahreszeit (“in each season”), but that changes nuance and wouldn’t follow egal in standard usage.
What case is welcher in zu welcher Jahreszeit, and why?
Jahreszeit is feminine, and zu always takes the dative case. The dative feminine form of welcher is welcher (no ending). Thus zu welcher Jahreszeit = “to which season,” i.e. “in which season.”
Why is Jahreszeit singular here, even though there are multiple seasons?
The phrase egal zu welcher Jahreszeit treats “season” generically: it says “no matter which single season you choose.” You’re not listing all seasons at once but saying “regardless of whichever season (it is).”
Why does the sentence start with Die Muschel-Sammlung rather than Meine Muschelsammlung?
Using die (the) implies the speaker assumes the listener knows which collection is meant or speaks generally about one’s own familiar collection. Meine would explicitly stress “my shell collection,” which is also correct but slightly more personal.