Im Winter ist das Land still und schön.

to be

Breakdown of Im Winter ist das Land still und schön.

• und: and
• schön: beautiful
• im: in the; (masculine or neuter, dative)

Questions & Answers about Im Winter ist das Land still und schön.

Why is it Im Winter and not In dem Winter?

Im is simply the usual contraction of in dem.

• in + dem Winter → im Winter
• This contraction is very common and normally preferred in everyday German.
• In dem Winter is grammatically correct but sounds more formal or contrastive, e.g. In dem Winter, nicht in dem davor, … (“In that winter, not the one before…”).

What grammatical case is Winter in, and why?

Winter is in the dative case here.

• The preposition in can take dative (location/time) or accusative (direction/motion).
• With time expressions like seasons, in uses the dative:
  
  • in dem Winter → im Winter
  • in dem Sommer → im Sommer
• Nominative: der Winter
• Dative: dem Winter → contracted to im Winter in the sentence.

Why is Winter capitalized?

All nouns in German are capitalized, and the names of the seasons (Winter, Sommer, Herbst, Frühling) are nouns.

So Winter is capitalized for the same reason as Land: both are nouns.