Learn Hardcore German: Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben, auch wenn es schwer ist. - We must not give up our plans, even when it is hard.

dürfen = to be allowed to / to be permitted to
- Wir dürfen gehen. – We are allowed to go.
können = to be able to / can (ability, possibility)
- Wir können gehen. – We are able to go / We can go.
sollen = should / supposed to (duty, recommendation, expectation from outside)
- Wir sollen gehen. – We are supposed to go / We should go.

So können would suggest can in the sense of being able to, and sollen would sound like a recommendation or duty.
Here, the idea is clearly “we are not allowed / we must not”, so dürfen is the correct choice.

Why is nicht placed before aufgeben: unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben and not somewhere else?

In German, nicht usually comes:

before the infinitive verb or separable-prefix verb at the end, and
after the direct object.

In this sentence:

unsere Pläne = direct object (what we might give up)
aufgeben = infinitive verb (to give up)

So the standard pattern is:

[Objekt] + nicht + [Infinitiv]
unsere Pläne + nicht + aufgeben

That’s why:

Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben. ✅
sounds natural.

You can say:

Wir dürfen nicht unsere Pläne aufgeben.

but this has a special emphasis:
We must not give up *our plans (as opposed to something else).
It’s contrastive focus on *unsere Pläne, so it’s less neutral.

The normal, neutral word order is:

Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben.

Why is it unsere Pläne and not something like unsere Plan or unsere Planen?

Several things are going on here:

The noun
- Singular: der Plan (plan)
- Plural: die Pläne (plans, with an umlaut)
So Planen is wrong as a plural noun form.
(Planen does exist, but as a verb “to plan” or as a different noun meaning “tarpaulins”.)
Case
The phrase is the direct object of aufgeben (to give up something).
Direct objects take the accusative case.
- Plural of der Plan in accusative is still die Pläne.
  (Nominative and accusative are identical in the plural for nouns.)
The possessive pronoun
- Base form: unser (our)
- Plural accusative: unsere

So:

unsere (our, plural accusative)
Pläne (plans, plural accusative)

→ unsere Pläne = our plans (as a direct object) ✅

Is aufgeben a separable verb? If so, why is it together here and not split into geben ... auf?

Yes, aufgeben is a separable prefix verb:

base verb: geben (to give)
prefix: auf- (up / give up)

How it behaves:

Finite verb in main clause – it splits:
- Wir geben unsere Pläne auf.
  We are giving up our plans.
Infinitive form – it stays together:
- Wir wollen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben.
- Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben.

In our sentence, aufgeben is an infinitive used with the modal dürfen, so it stays as one word at the end:

dürfen (conjugated) … aufgeben (infinitive, unsplit)

That’s why it’s aufgeben, not geben … auf here.

What does auch wenn mean here, and how is it different from obwohl or just wenn?

auch wenn roughly means “even if / even when”.

In this sentence:

... auch wenn es schwer ist.
... even when it is hard.

Nuances:

wenn alone often means if / when (conditional or temporal)
- Wenn es regnet, bleiben wir zu Hause. – If/When it rains, we stay home.
auch wenn adds the “even if/even though” idea:
- emphasizes that something is true despite a condition
obwohl means although / even though:
- Wir geben nicht auf, obwohl es schwer ist.

Here:

auch wenn stresses “even when that is the case, we still do X”.
obwohl is a bit more straightforwardly concessive “although”.

You could also say:

Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben, obwohl es schwer ist. ✅

This is very close in meaning. Auch wenn sounds a bit more like even when it’s hard (at times), slightly more general or hypothetical, whereas obwohl simply states a contrast.

In auch wenn es schwer ist, what does es refer to? What is “it”?

Here, es is a dummy subject (also called an expletive es). It doesn’t refer to a specific noun; it just fills the subject position, like English “it” in:

It is hard.
It is raining.

German uses es the same way:

Es ist schwer. – It is hard.
Es regnet. – It is raining.

In the clause:

auch wenn es schwer ist

es is just the grammatical subject of ist.
The situation (not giving up, continuing with our plans) is understood as what is “hard,” but it’s not named explicitly.

Why is it schwer and not schwierig or hart? Are they different?

All three can mean something like “hard/difficult,” but with different typical uses and nuances:

schwer
- very common and flexible: can mean physically heavy or mentally/emotionally difficult.
- Es ist schwer. – It is hard/difficult.
schwierig
- more specifically difficult, often for tasks, problems, situations (a bit more formal/precise).
- Die Aufgabe ist schwierig. – The exercise is difficult.
hart
- literally hard (not soft), and metaphorically harsh / tough.
- ein hartes Leben – a hard life
- hart arbeiten – to work hard

In this sentence:

schwer is the most natural, general word.
schwierig would also be possible:
… auch wenn es schwierig ist. ✅
This might sound a bit more like an intellectual or technical difficulty.
hart would sound more like “tough/harsh”:
… auch wenn es hart ist. ✅
with a stronger emotional/physical-struggle flavor.

So schwer is a neutral, very common choice here.

Why does the verb ist come at the end in auch wenn es schwer ist?

This is a subordinate clause introduced by wenn.

In German:

main clause (Hauptsatz): the verb is in second position.
- Es ist schwer. – It is hard.
  (verb ist is the 2nd element)
subordinate clause (Nebensatz) introduced by a subordinating conjunction like wenn, weil, dass, obwohl: the finite verb goes to the end.
- ..., weil es schwer ist. – because it is hard
- ..., wenn es schwer ist. – when/if it is hard

So:

auch wenn (subordinating conjunction)
→ verb ist moves to the end

Hence the structure:

[auch wenn] [es] [schwer] [ist]

How would this sentence look in the past tense, like “We were not allowed to give up our plans, even when it was hard”?

We change dürfen (present) to its preterite form durften (were allowed to / were permitted to) and ist to war (was).

Present:
- Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben, auch wenn es schwer ist.
Past:
- Wir durften unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben, auch wenn es schwer war.

This means:

Wir durften unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben, auch wenn es schwer war.
We were not allowed to give up our plans, even when it was hard.

You could also use the perfect (spoken German):

Wir haben unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben dürfen, auch wenn es schwer war.
(grammatically correct but a bit heavier; preterite is nicer here.)

Is dürfen ... nicht always prohibition? How is it different from müssen ... nicht?

Yes, dürfen … nicht usually expresses prohibition or lack of permission:

Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben.
= We are not allowed to give up our plans. / We must not give up our plans.

Important contrast:

nicht dürfen = must not / may not (forbidden)
nicht müssen = don’t have to (no obligation, but allowed)

Examples:

Du darfst nicht gehen.
= You must not go. (You are not allowed.)
Du musst nicht gehen.
= You don’t have to go. (You may go or stay; it’s your choice.)

So in our sentence, dürfen … nicht clearly sends the message:
“We are not allowed / We must not give up our plans.”

How should I pronounce dürfen and Pläne with the umlauts?

Umlauts change the vowel quality:

ü in dürfen
- Similar to the French u in lune or the English “ee” in see, but with rounded lips.
- Mouth position:
  - Say English “ee” (as in see).
  - Keep the tongue where it is.
  - Now round your lips like for “oo” (as in too).
    That sound is ü.
Syllables:
- dür-fen
  - dü like “dy” with ü
  - -rfen like “rfen”
ä in Pläne
- Similar to the vowel in English “bed”, but often a bit more open/clear.
- Pläne sounds roughly like “PLÄ-neh”:
  - Plä- like “pleh” but with a bit more open e
  - final -ne is like “nuh” (very short)

Stress:

DÜR-fen – stress on the first syllable.
PLÄ-ne – stress on the first syllable.

Why is Pläne capitalized? Which words must be capitalized in German?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of where they appear in the sentence.

Pläne is a noun → therefore capitalized.
unsere is a pronoun → lower-case.
wir, es (pronouns), dürfen, aufgeben, ist (verbs), nicht, auch, wenn, schwer (other word types) → all lower-case (except at the beginning of the sentence).

Basic rule:

Capitalize: all nouns, all names, the polite Sie (you), and the first word of a sentence.
Do not capitalize: verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, pronouns (except formal Sie and at sentence start), etc.

So:

Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben, auch wenn es schwer ist.
Only Wir (sentence start) and Pläne (noun) are capitalized.

Why is there a comma before auch wenn?

The comma marks the start of a subordinate clause.

Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben – main clause
auch wenn es schwer ist – subordinate clause (introduced by wenn)

German punctuation rules:

A comma is required before most subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like dass, weil, wenn, obwohl, als, während, etc.

So you must write:

Wir dürfen unsere Pläne nicht aufgeben, auch wenn es schwer ist. ✅

Leaving out the comma would be incorrect in standard written German.