Breakdown of Abends zünden wir ein kleines Lagerfeuer aus trockenem Holz an.
Questions & Answers about Abends zünden wir ein kleines Lagerfeuer aus trockenem Holz an.
Abends (with a capital A at the beginning of the sentence) is an adverb meaning in the evenings / at night (in the evening time).
- Abends vs abends: At the start of the sentence it’s capitalized simply because it’s the first word. Inside a sentence it would be abends (lowercase). Grammatically they’re the same word (an adverb).
- Abends vs am Abend:
- abends = in general, regularly in the evenings (a habitual action).
- Abends zünden wir … an. = We (generally) light a campfire in the evenings.
- am Abend = on a specific evening / in the evening (of a particular day or context).
- Am Abend zünden wir … an. = In the evening (that day / that occasion), we’ll light a campfire.
- abends = in general, regularly in the evenings (a habitual action).
So abends expresses a habitual, repeated time frame; am Abend usually refers to a specific one.
Yes, the basic (dictionary) form is anzünden – a separable prefix verb.
- In German main clauses, separable prefix verbs split:
- The conjugated part (here: zünden) goes into position 2.
- The prefix (here: an) goes to the very end of the clause.
- So:
- Infinitive: anzünden
- Main clause: Abends zünden wir ein kleines Lagerfeuer aus trockenem Holz an.
If you use another structure (infinitive or past participle), it’s together again:
- Wir wollen ein Lagerfeuer anzünden.
- Wir haben ein Lagerfeuer angezündet.
German main clauses follow a verb-second rule: the conjugated verb must be in the second position, not necessarily after the subject.
In this sentence:
- Abends = first position (a time adverb at the start).
- zünden = second position (the verb, as required).
- Then comes the subject: wir.
If you start the sentence with the subject, it looks “more English”-like:
- Wir zünden abends ein kleines Lagerfeuer aus trockenem Holz an.
Both word orders are correct; the meaning is almost the same. Starting with Abends simply emphasizes when the action happens.
There are two points here: gender/case and adjective endings.
- Lagerfeuer is neuter: das Lagerfeuer.
- In this sentence, Lagerfeuer is the direct object → accusative case.
Neuter noun with indefinite article in accusative:
- Nominative: ein Lagerfeuer
- Accusative: ein Lagerfeuer (same form as nominative, no -en)
So you must use ein, not einen. Einen would be the accusative form for masculine nouns (einen Baum, einen Tisch).
The ending comes from German adjective declension rules.
- Noun: Lagerfeuer (neuter)
- Article: ein (indefinite article)
- Case: accusative (direct object)
Pattern: neuter, accusative, after “ein-” word → adjective ending is -es.
So:
- ein kleines Lagerfeuer = a small campfire
- Similarly:
- ein großes Haus (a big house – neuter)
- ein neues Auto (a new car – neuter)
The -es signals the gender and case that the article ein doesn’t fully show.
Lagerfeuer is a compound noun:
- Lager = camp
- Feuer = fire
So Lagerfeuer specifically means a campfire – a fire made outdoors for warmth, cooking, or atmosphere, for example while camping.
General Feuer can mean any fire (a house fire, a candle flame, etc.).
So:
- ein Feuer = a fire (very general)
- ein Lagerfeuer = a campfire (more specific image).
aus and mit both exist, but they mean different things here.
- aus
- material = made of / consisting of that material.
- ein Lagerfeuer aus trockenem Holz = a campfire made of dry wood.
- material = made of / consisting of that material.
- mit
- instrument/means = with / using something as a tool or accompaniment.
- ein Feuer mit trockenem Holz machen = to make a fire with dry wood (you use it as material, but the focus is more on the act than on the composition).
- instrument/means = with / using something as a tool or accompaniment.
In your sentence, aus trockenem Holz emphasizes that the material of the fire (the wood it’s built from) is dry.
So aus is the most natural preposition here.
This is again adjective declension plus the case required by aus.
- Preposition aus always takes the dative case.
- Holz is neuter: das Holz.
- Dative singular neuter: dem Holz (with article).
With an adjective and no article (no dem here), German uses strong endings:
- Neuter, dative, no article → adjective ending -em
So:
- aus trockenem Holz = from dry wood
- Similarly:
- aus rotem Holz (from red wood)
- mit kaltem Wasser (with cold water)
If there were an article, the form would change:
- aus dem trockenen Holz = from the dry wood
Yes, aus basically means out of / from. One of its common uses is to indicate material:
- ein Tisch aus Holz = a table made of wood
- ein Ring aus Gold = a ring made of gold
In ein kleines Lagerfeuer aus trockenem Holz, it’s the same pattern:
- The fire is made from / built from dry wood.
So you can think of aus here as “made of”.
Yes, that version is perfectly correct:
- Abends zünden wir … an.
- Wir zünden abends … an.
Both mean essentially the same thing. The main difference is information structure / emphasis:
- Starting with Abends emphasizes when: As for the evenings, we light a campfire.
- Starting with Wir is more neutral and subject-focused: We (in general) light a campfire in the evenings.
In everyday speech, both are natural. German word order allows this flexibility as long as the finite verb stays in second position.
Yes. Holz in German often works like “wood” in English when you talk about it as a material:
- Holz (singular, uncountable) = wood as a substance or general material.
- Hölzer (plural) = different kinds/types/pieces of wood, but is used less often in everyday speech.
In aus trockenem Holz, the focus is on the material: the campfire is made of wood, not, for example, made of coal. So singular Holz is natural and standard here.