Breakdown of In meiner Heimatstadt planen wir ein Treffen für Leute, die über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen möchten.
Questions & Answers about In meiner Heimatstadt planen wir ein Treffen für Leute, die über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen möchten.
Because in here describes a location (“in my hometown”), not a movement (“into my hometown”).
- With location, in takes the dative case.
- Heimatstadt is feminine, so:
- nominative: meine Heimatstadt
- dative: meiner Heimatstadt
So you need In meiner Heimatstadt = “In my hometown (locative)”.
If you talked about movement towards the town, you could say:
- Ich fahre in meine Heimatstadt. – I’m going (into) my hometown. (accusative for direction)
German main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in second position.
Here, In meiner Heimatstadt is taken as the first position (the “prefield”), so the verb must come next:
- 1st element: In meiner Heimatstadt
- 2nd (the verb): planen
- 3rd (subject): wir
So:
- In meiner Heimatstadt planen wir …
If you start with the subject, you can say:
- Wir planen in meiner Heimatstadt ein Treffen …
Yes, it is completely correct and natural.
Both are fine:
- In meiner Heimatstadt planen wir ein Treffen … (emphasis: the place)
- Wir planen in meiner Heimatstadt ein Treffen … (emphasis: the fact that we are planning)
Same grammar, different focus.
Treffen is the normal, everyday German word for “(a) meeting / get-together” in a social or informal context.
- It’s neuter: das Treffen
- Accusative singular (direct object): ein Treffen
Meeting is also used in German, but mostly in business or office contexts:
- ein Meeting mit dem Chef – a meeting with the boss
Here it’s a gathering for people to talk about their past, so ein Treffen is the most natural choice.
Heimatstadt = Heimat (home, homeland) + Stadt (city/town).
It means roughly “hometown” – the town or city you feel you come from / belong to.
- Gender: feminine
- die Heimatstadt (nom.)
- der Heimatstadt (dat. & gen.)
- die Heimatstadt (acc.)
In the sentence, meiner Heimatstadt is feminine dative singular after in (location).
die is a relative pronoun referring back to Leute.
- Leute (people) is grammatically plural.
- The relative pronoun for plural (all genders) in nominative is die.
In the relative clause, die is the subject of sprechen, so it must be nominative:
- für Leute, die über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen möchten
- die = people who are speaking
Other forms (for comparison):
- Plural dative: denen – e.g. Leute, denen ich vertraue (people whom I trust)
Grammatically, ihre can mean:
- her (feminine singular possessive)
- their (3rd person plural possessive)
Here it refers back to Leute (people), so in context it means “their past”, i.e. each person’s own past.
- Leute, die über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen möchten
→ people who want to talk about their past
Only context tells you whether ihre is “her” or “their”. Here, the plural makes “their” the logical choice.
Both are possible with sprechen:
- über etwas sprechen – to talk about something (neutral, very common)
- von etwas sprechen – to speak of something (slightly more formal or literary in some uses, sometimes a bit less focused / detailed)
In this context:
- über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen = talk about their past (very standard, direct)
- von ihrer Vergangenheit sprechen would also be understood and acceptable, but über is the more typical choice for “talk about X” in everyday speech.
In German subordinate clauses (including relative clauses), all verbs go to the end of the clause, and the finite verb (here the modal) goes last:
main clause: Wir möchten über unsere Vergangenheit sprechen.
- finite verb in 2nd position: möchten
- other verb (infinitive) at the end: sprechen
relative clause: … Leute, die über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen möchten.
- clause-final verb cluster: sprechen möchten (infinitive before finite modal)
So the order sprechen möchten is required by the word-order rules for subordinate clauses.
möchten is the “soft”, polite way to express a wish or desire:
- möchten ≈ “would like (to)”
- wollen ≈ “to want (to)” (more direct, sometimes sounds strong or pushy)
So:
- … Leute, die über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen möchten.
→ people who would like to talk about their past
If you said:
- … Leute, die über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen wollen.
→ people who want to talk about their past
It’s still correct, just a bit more direct and factual, less “polite-sounding”.
German, like English, often uses the present tense for planned future events, especially when it’s clearly about the future from context:
- In meiner Heimatstadt planen wir ein Treffen …
Literally: “In my hometown we are planning a meeting …”
Similar in English:
- “We are planning a meeting for next week.”
You could use the future tense (werden planen), but it’s less common and usually unnecessary here. Present tense is the normal choice.
German requires a comma before every subordinate clause, including relative clauses that begin with a relative pronoun like die, der, das, wo, etc.
- für Leute, die über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen möchten
- main part: für Leute
- relative clause: die über ihre Vergangenheit sprechen möchten
So the comma marks the start of the relative clause that describes Leute.