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Nach dem Sport dusche ich kurz und ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an.

Nach dem Sport dusche ich kurz und ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an.
After sports I take a quick shower and put on my warm pyjamas.
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Questions & Answers about Nach dem Sport dusche ich kurz und ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an.

Why is it Nach dem Sport and not Nach der Sport or just Nach Sport?

The preposition nach requires the dative case when it means after (in time).

  • Sport is masculine: der Sport (nominative).
  • In the dative masculine singular, der becomes dem.

So:

  • nach dem Sport = after (the) sport / after exercising

You normally do need an article here. Nach Sport on its own would sound wrong in this temporal meaning.

Why does the sentence start with Nach dem Sport and not with Ich?

German often puts time / place expressions at the beginning of a sentence to set the scene:

  • Nach dem Sport (time)
  • dusche (conjugated verb in 2nd position)
  • ich (subject)

German main clauses normally keep the finite verb in 2nd position. If you move Nach dem Sport to the front, the subject ich has to move after the verb:

  • Ich dusche nach dem Sport kurz und ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an. (subject first)
  • Nach dem Sport dusche ich kurz und ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an. (time first)

Both are correct; the second just emphasizes the time a bit more.

Should it be ich dusche or ich dusche mich? I thought duschen was reflexive.

Both exist:

  • ich dusche – I shower (no explicit object)
  • ich dusche mich – literally I shower myself

In everyday German:

  • Saying just ich dusche is very common and completely natural.
  • ich dusche mich is also correct, but not required.

So Nach dem Sport dusche ich kurz… is perfectly fine and idiomatic.

What exactly does kurz mean here? Is it “shortly after” or “for a short time”?

In this sentence kurz means for a short time / briefly:

  • Ich dusche kurz ≈ I take a quick shower / I shower briefly.

If you wanted to say shortly after (that), you would typically use kurz danach or kurz darauf, not just kurz after the verb.

Why is the verb split in ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an? Where did an come from?

The base verb is the separable verb anziehen (to put on, to get dressed in).

In the infinitive or at the end of a clause you see it together:

  • Ich will meinen Pyjama anziehen.

In a main clause with verb-second word order, separable prefixes move to the end of the clause:

  • Ich ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an.

So ziehe … an is just anziehen split apart, which is normal for separable verbs in main clauses.

Why is it meinen warmen Pyjama and not mein warmer Pyjama?

Because Pyjama is the direct object of ziehe an, it’s in the accusative case, and it’s masculine:

  • Nominative: der Pyjama
  • Accusative: den Pyjama

With a possessive like mein, the forms are:

  • Nominative masculine: mein warmer Pyjama
  • Accusative masculine: meinen warmen Pyjama

So in this sentence we need accusative masculine:

  • Ich ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an.
What gender is Pyjama, and how do I know the endings -en in meinen warmen are correct?

Pyjama is masculine in German: der Pyjama.

In the accusative masculine singular with a possessive determiner and an adjective, you get:

  • Determiner: mein → meinen
  • Adjective: warm → warmen

Pattern:

  • meinen warmen Pyjama = my warm pyjamas (object)

So both meinen and warmen take -en because they are modifying a masculine accusative noun.

Why is Sport used here? Does Sport mean “exercise” in German?

Yes. Sport in German usually means:

  • physical exercise, working out
  • sports in general

So Nach dem Sport most naturally means after exercising / after my workout, not after watching sports on TV. If you wanted to emphasize training, you could also say nach dem Training, but nach dem Sport is very common and idiomatic.

Why is it Nach dem Sport and not something like Danach dem Sport?

Nach and danach are different:

  • nach is a preposition and must be followed by a noun in the dative:

    • nach dem Sport, nach der Arbeit, nach der Schule

  • danach is an adverb and stands on its own, not before a noun:

    • Ich mache Sport. Danach dusche ich.

So you can say:

  • Nach dem Sport dusche ich…
  • Ich mache Sport. Danach dusche ich…

…but Danach dem Sport is ungrammatical.

Why is there only one ich? Shouldn’t it be …dusche ich kurz und ich ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an?

German often drops the repeated subject when two verbs share the same subject and are joined with und:

  • Nach dem Sport dusche ich kurz und ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an.

Here ich is understood for ziehe as well.

You could say:

  • Nach dem Sport dusche ich kurz und ich ziehe meinen warmen Pyjama an.

That is grammatical but sounds heavier and is less natural in everyday speech unless you want to emphasize the second part.

Could I also say Nach dem Sport dusche ich kurz und ziehe mir meinen warmen Pyjama an? What does mir change?

Yes, that’s possible and quite common:

  • ich ziehe meinen Pyjama an – I put my pyjamas on.
  • ich ziehe mir meinen Pyjama an – literally I put my pyjamas on for myself.

With clothes, Germans very often use a dative pronoun (mir, dir, uns) to show the action affects the person personally:

  • Ich ziehe mir eine Jacke an.
  • Sie zieht sich den Mantel an.

In practice, ich ziehe meinen Pyjama an and ich ziehe mir meinen Pyjama an mean almost the same; the version with mir just sounds a bit more like typical spoken German.