Jedes Mal freue ich mich, wenn der Hund im Garten spielt.

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Breakdown of Jedes Mal freue ich mich, wenn der Hund im Garten spielt.

• der Hund: the dog
• ich: I
• der Garten: the garden

Questions & Answers about Jedes Mal freue ich mich, wenn der Hund im Garten spielt.

Why does the sentence start with Jedes Mal and then have freue ich mich instead of ich freue mich?

German main clauses must have the finite verb in second position (the V2 rule). That doesn’t mean “second word,” but “second element.”

Here, the elements are:

1. Jedes Mal (adverbial phrase – “every time”)
2. freue (finite verb)
3. ich (subject)
4. mich (reflexive pronoun)
5. … (rest of the sentence)

Because Jedes Mal is put first for emphasis, the verb freue has to come next, and the subject ich moves after the verb. This inversion (verb before subject) is completely normal in German whenever you start a main clause with something other than the subject.

If you started with the subject instead, you’d say:

• Ich freue mich jedes Mal, wenn der Hund im Garten spielt.

The meaning is the same; the difference is just emphasis and style.

Why do we need mich in freue ich mich? Can we just say Ich freue?