Breakdown of Heute legt die Fähre direkt am kleinen Hafen an.
Questions & Answers about Heute legt die Fähre direkt am kleinen Hafen an.
Anlegen is a separable verb in German (prefix verb).
In the present tense, main clause, separable verbs split:
- The conjugated part (here: legt) goes to the 2nd position.
- The prefix (here: an) goes to the end of the clause.
So:
- Heute legt die Fähre direkt am kleinen Hafen an.
– legt = 3rd person singular of legen
– an = separable prefix
If you put it into a form where the verb is at the end (e.g. subordinate clause or infinitive), it stays together:
- …, weil die Fähre direkt am kleinen Hafen anlegt.
- Die Fähre wird direkt am kleinen Hafen anlegen.
German main clauses follow the verb‑second (V2) rule: the conjugated verb must be in 2nd position.
The word in 1st position can be many things: subject, time, place, object, etc. Here, Heute (today) is in 1st position to emphasize the time.
Word order options:
- Heute legt die Fähre direkt am kleinen Hafen an.
(Time first; focus on today.) - Die Fähre legt heute direkt am kleinen Hafen an.
(Subject first; more neutral.)
Both are correct. What matters is that legt is the second element in the clause.
Without the prefix, legen means to lay / to put (something):
- Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch. – I lay the book on the table.
With an as a separable prefix, anlegen has a special meaning here:
for a boat / ship / ferry: to dock / to moor at a harbor or pier.
So:
- Die Fähre legt an. – The ferry docks.
- Heute legt die Fähre direkt am kleinen Hafen an. – The ferry docks directly at the small harbor.
Same verb stem legen, but the prefix an changes the meaning completely.
Am is the contraction of an + dem:
- an + dem Hafen → am Hafen
An here is a two‑way preposition (Wechselpräposition). It takes:
- Accusative if there is movement into / onto something (destination).
- Dative if it is about position / location (no movement into).
In this sentence, the final location where the ferry ends up is at the harbor; it expresses where the ferry docks, not to where it is moving in a directional sense that crosses a boundary like “onto the shore.” So German uses dative:
- am kleinen Hafen = an + dem kleinen Hafen (dative singular)
An den kleinen Hafen (accusative) would sound like focusing on movement towards the harbor as an endpoint in a different structure and is not the usual phrasing with anlegen.
This is a subtle point of German prepositions.
With an (and other two‑way prepositions), you choose:
- Accusative: movement into / onto / up to a boundary
- Dative: a state / position at a place
With the verb anlegen (mit einem Schiff), German focuses conceptually on the final position at the harbor (where the ferry is moored), not the path of movement.
So you use an + dative:
- Die Fähre legt am kleinen Hafen an.
→ emphasis: its location when docked
Compare:
- Ich gehe an den Hafen. (accusative) – I am going to the harbor.
→ path of movement is important
With gehen, you focus on the movement, so an den Hafen (accusative).
With anlegen, the conventional phrase is am Hafen anlegen (dative).
The -en on kleinen is the adjective ending required by German grammar.
Break it down:
- Preposition an → needs dative here.
- Masculine noun Hafen in the dative singular.
- Definite article in dative masculine: dem (contracted to am = an + dem).
- After a definite article in dative singular masculine, an attributive adjective gets -en.
Pattern:
- an + dem + kleinen + Hafen
- am kleinen Hafen
So the -en ending is just the normal dative singular masculine adjective ending after a definite article.
Direkt here means directly / right (at the small harbor).
Function:
- It emphasizes that the ferry docks exactly at the small harbor and not, for example, at a larger harbor nearby or at some offshore point and then transfers.
Is it necessary?
Grammatically: No.
You can say:- Heute legt die Fähre am kleinen Hafen an.
In terms of meaning: Yes, if you want that nuance.
Direkt adds the idea that the ferry goes straight there or docks at that exact location without detours or intermediate stops.
Position-wise, direkt is correctly placed before the prepositional phrase:
- Heute legt die Fähre direkt am kleinen Hafen an.
Yes. Several word orders are possible as long as the finite verb is 2nd and the prefix is at the end. All of these are correct:
- Heute legt die Fähre direkt am kleinen Hafen an.
- Die Fähre legt heute direkt am kleinen Hafen an.
- Die Fähre legt direkt am kleinen Hafen heute an. (possible, but unusual; focus shifts to today at the end)
Nuances:
- Starting with Heute: emphasizes today.
- Starting with Die Fähre: more neutral, or emphasis on the ferry.
- Moving heute around mainly affects rhythm and subtle emphasis, not core meaning.
The key rules:
- One element in 1st position (Heute / Die Fähre / etc.).
- Legt must be in 2nd position.
- An must be last in the clause.
Fähre is a feminine noun in German:
- Singular: die Fähre – the ferry
- Plural: die Fähren – the ferries
There is no fully logical rule for why Fähre is feminine; grammatical gender in German is often arbitrary and must be learned with each noun.
Patterns that can help:
- Many nouns ending in -e are feminine (die Straße, die Lampe, die Brücke, die Fähre), but this is not a 100% rule.
In the sentence:
- die Fähre is the subject (nominative singular feminine).
- The verb is accordingly legt (3rd person singular).
Both an and in can be used with Hafen, but they emphasize different things:
am Hafen = at the harbor / by the harbor
→ focuses on being at the edge, the quay, the pier.im Hafen = in the harbor (inside the harbor area/basin)
→ focuses on being inside the harbor waters, not out on the open sea.
With anlegen (for ships/ferries), the usual collocation is:
- an einem Hafen anlegen – to dock at a harbor
→ therefore: am Hafen anlegen
Saying im Hafen anlegen is possible in some contexts, but am Hafen anlegen is the standard phrase describing where the ship docks.