Meine Cousine besucht uns am Wochenende.

My female cousin visits us on the weekend.

Breakdown of Meine Cousine besucht uns am Wochenende.

• mein: my
• das Wochenende: the weekend
• besuchen: to visit
• uns: us
• am: on
• die Cousine: the cousin (female)

Questions & Answers about Meine Cousine besucht uns am Wochenende.

Why is it meine Cousine and not mein Cousine?

In German, possessive words like mein work like little adjectives and must match the grammatical gender, number, and case of the noun they describe.

• Cousine is feminine.
• It is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case.
• The feminine nominative form of mein is meine.

So you get meine Cousine (my female cousin) as the subject.
If it were a masculine noun in the nominative, you would say mein Bruder (my brother), not meine Bruder.

What is the difference between Cousine and Cousin?

Both words mean cousin, but:

• Cousine = female cousin
• Cousin = male cousin

So meine Cousine clearly tells you that the cousin is female.
For a male cousin, you would say mein Cousin besucht uns am Wochenende.

Why is Cousine and not a word like Vetter used here?

Vetter is an older or more regional word for a male cousin and is less common in everyday modern German, especially among younger speakers.

Today, most people say:

• Cousin for a male cousin
• Cousine for a female cousin

So the sentence uses the standard, modern form for a female cousin.

Why is the verb besucht and not besuchen?

Besuchen is the infinitive (dictionary form), similar to to visit in English.

In the sentence, the subject is meine Cousine (she), so the verb must be conjugated for 3rd person singular, present tense:

• ich besuche
• du besuchst
• er/sie/es besucht
• wir besuchen
• ihr besucht
• sie/Sie besuchen

So with meine Cousine, you need besucht:
Meine Cousine besucht uns … = My cousin visits us / is visiting us.

Can besuchen be split like some other German verbs (for example, anrufen → ruft … an)?

No. Besuchen is an inseparable verb.

• The prefix be- is one of the inseparable prefixes in German (like ver-, er-, ent-, etc.).
• That means you never move it to the end of the clause.

You say:

• Meine Cousine besucht uns am Wochenende.
  Never: … sucht uns be.

Why is it uns and not wir?

Wir and uns are forms of the same pronoun, but in different cases:

• wir = nominative (subject) → Wir besuchen sie.
• uns = accusative or dative (object) → Sie besucht uns.

In Meine Cousine besucht uns am Wochenende:

• meine Cousine is the subject (who is doing the visiting) → nominative
• uns is the direct object (who is being visited) → accusative

So you must use uns, not wir.

What case is uns here?

Here, uns is in the accusative case.

• The verb besuchen takes a direct object in the accusative:
  • jemanden besuchen = to visit someone (accusative)

So uns answers the question Wen besucht sie? (Whom is she visiting?) → uns.
That makes it accusative.

Why is it am Wochenende and not im Wochenende?

Am Wochenende is the standard way to say at the weekend / on the weekend in German.

• am is a contraction of an + dem.
• With time expressions like Tag, Abend, Wochenende, German often uses an:
  • am Montag (on Monday)
  • am Abend (in the evening)
  • am Wochenende (at/on the weekend)

Im Wochenende is not idiomatic; Germans simply don’t say it in this context.

What does am in am Wochenende literally mean?

Am is a shortened form of an dem:

• an = at / on (here: a time preposition)
• dem = dative form of der for a neuter noun (here: das Wochenende)

So literally: an dem Wochenende → am Wochenende.
Grammatically:

• Wochenende is neuter: das Wochenende
• After an with a time expression, you use the dative: an dem Wochenende
• In everyday language, this always appears as am Wochenende.

What case is Wochenende in, and why is there no extra ending?

Wochenende is in the dative case because of the preposition an (in the contracted form am).

• Base form: das Wochenende (neuter)
• Dative singular: dem Wochenende
• In the contraction: am Wochenende

Neuter nouns usually do not change their form in the dative singular, so Wochenende looks the same as in the nominative: no extra ending is added.

Can I put am Wochenende at the beginning of the sentence instead of at the end?

Yes. Both are correct:

• Meine Cousine besucht uns am Wochenende.
• Am Wochenende besucht meine Cousine uns.

The difference is mainly in emphasis:

• Version 1 focuses more neutrally on the action itself.
• Version 2 puts extra emphasis on the time (the weekend).

In both versions, the conjugated verb (besucht) stays in second position, as German word order rules require.

Why is the present tense (besucht) used to talk about the future?

In German, the present tense is very often used for near future plans, especially when a time expression makes the meaning clear.

So, with am Wochenende in the sentence, Meine Cousine besucht uns am Wochenende naturally means:

• My cousin is going to visit us at the weekend.

You could also use the future tense (wird uns besuchen), but in everyday language the simple present with a time expression is more common here.

Is there a continuous tense in German like is visiting in English?

German does not have a separate continuous tense like is visiting, are going, was doing, etc.

The simple present in German covers both:

• English simple present: She visits us.
• English present continuous: She is visiting us.

So Meine Cousine besucht uns am Wochenende can naturally be understood as She is visiting us this weekend.