Breakdown of Im Seminar über Muttersprache und Zweitsprache sprechen wir über Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft.
Questions & Answers about Im Seminar über Muttersprache und Zweitsprache sprechen wir über Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft.
Im is a contraction of in dem.
- in = in
- dem = the (dative, neuter or masculine singular)
So im Seminar = in dem Seminar = in the seminar.
Because of in, Seminar is in the dative case: dem Seminar.
In German, all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they appear in the sentence.
- Seminar, Muttersprache, Zweitsprache, Vergangenheit, Gegenwart, Zukunft are all nouns, so they all start with a capital letter.
- Verbs, adjectives, and most other parts of speech are not capitalized in the middle of a sentence (unless they have become nouns, e.g. das Sprechen).
German can drop the article in front of abstract or general concepts, similar to English:
- English: We talk about *language in general.* (no “the”)
- German: Wir sprechen über Muttersprache und Zweitsprache.
Here, Muttersprache and Zweitsprache are treated as general categories, not specific, identifiable languages. If you made it specific, you would add an article, e.g.:
- Wir sprechen über die Muttersprache der Kinder.
We talk about the children’s native language.
Two separate points:
The preposition über usually takes the accusative case when it means about (topic of conversation).
- über + Akkusativ: über die Muttersprache, über die Vergangenheit.
The sentence is talking about these things in general, so it omits the article:
- Accusative singular feminine with article: über die Muttersprache
- Without article, just the noun: über Muttersprache
So the full, “complete” form would be über die Muttersprache und die Zweitsprache, but dropping die makes it more general and a bit more concise.
These are related but not identical:
Muttersprache – mother tongue / native language
Usually the language (or languages) you grow up speaking at home.Erstsprache – first language (L1)
More technical / neutral term; often used in linguistics. It may or may not be the same as Muttersprache in real-life situations.Zweitsprache – second language (L2)
A language you learn in a country or environment where it is used (e.g. a migrant child learning the majority language at school).Fremdsprache – foreign language
A language you learn in a context where it is not the main societal language (e.g. German taught in an English-speaking country).
In everyday speech, Zweitsprache and Fremdsprache are often loosely used as “other language you learn after your first”, but in educational and linguistic contexts the difference (second vs foreign language) matters.
German main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb is always in second position.
Here, the first element in the sentence is Im Seminar über Muttersprache und Zweitsprache (a long prepositional phrase). The verb must therefore come second, so:
- Im Seminar über Muttersprache und Zweitsprache – first element
- sprechen – second element (the verb)
- wir – subject
- über Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft. – rest
If you start instead with the subject, you get:
- Wir sprechen im Seminar über Muttersprache und Zweitsprache über Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft.
Both orders are correct; they just emphasize different parts of the sentence.
German often places new or important information toward the end of the sentence. Also, prepositional phrases that describe what you are talking about often come last.
The structure here is roughly:
- Where? – Im Seminar über Muttersprache und Zweitsprache
- What’s happening? – sprechen wir
- About what exactly? – über Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft
So the “content” of the seminar appears at the end, which is natural in German word order.
The sentence has two important prepositions:
im = in dem → from in + dem
- in can take dative when it means location (where?), which is the case here.
- dem Seminar = dative singular.
über
- When über means about (a topic), it usually takes the accusative case.
- So strictly: über die Muttersprache, über die Zweitsprache, über die Vergangenheit etc.
- Articles are simply dropped here because the nouns are generic.
Yes, but they are not exact synonyms:
- das Seminar – usually a smaller, interactive class (discussion, presentations, group work).
- der Kurs – very general word for course/class; can be anything from a language course to a yoga course.
- die Vorlesung – a large, usually one-way lecture at university (professor talks, students listen).
So:
- Im Seminar – in a seminar-style class
- Im Kurs – in the course/class (broad)
- In der Vorlesung – in the lecture
Both can appear in topic contexts, but they have different typical uses:
über
- accusative
- Most common for talk about / discuss (a topic).
- Wir sprechen über Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft.
von
- dative
- Often: mention, talk of, hear from/about, sometimes more indirect or source-related.
- Er hat von der Vergangenheit erzählt. – He told (us) about the past.
- Wir sprechen von der Gegenwart. – We are speaking of the present. (grammatically fine, but sounds more limited or literary here)
In your sentence, über is the natural choice: sprechen über (ein Thema).
All of these words are nouns, so German capitalizes them:
- Muttersprache – a type of language
- Zweitsprache – a type of language
- Vergangenheit – the past
- Gegenwart – the present
- Zukunft – the future
This is consistent with the general rule: nouns = capital letter, regardless of their meaning (abstract or concrete).
The sentence is about the concepts of native language and second language in general, not about multiple individual languages.
- Singular without article can express a general concept:
- Muttersprache = the idea of a native language
- Zweitsprache = the idea of a second language
If you use plural, you usually refer to many specific instances:
- Wir sprechen über MutterspracheN und ZweitspracheN in Europa.
→ about many different native and second languages in Europe.
So the singular fits better for general, theoretical discussion.
Yes, you can say über die Vergangenheit, die Gegenwart und die Zukunft. That would also be correct.
The version ohne Artikel (without articles) is chosen because:
- We are talking about abstract time concepts in a very general way.
- In such contexts, German often drops the article, especially in lists and academic-style language.
Roughly:
- über die Vergangenheit – the past in a more specific or “the” sense
- über Vergangenheit – pastness as a concept, more general/abstract
Yes, that word order is grammatically correct, and the basic meaning is the same.
- Wir sprechen im Seminar … – starts with the subject wir, so it feels more neutral, “plain”.
- Im Seminar … sprechen wir … – puts Im Seminar in first position, so the setting (in the seminar) is emphasized.
German word order allows several permutations, as long as:
- The finite verb stays in second position.
- The sentence remains clear and natural.
Your alternative satisfies both conditions.
In German, you normally must include the subject pronoun:
- sprechen alone does not form a complete main clause.
- wir sprechen is the normal form: wir (we) + sprechen (speak).
Unlike in Spanish or Italian (which often drop pronouns: hablamos, parliamo), German is not a “pro-drop” language. You almost always say ich, du, er/sie/es, wir, ihr, sie explicitly.
So sprechen wir (after the initial phrase) is required; leaving out wir would sound incomplete or poetic at best.