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Meine Nachbarin und ich verstehen uns gut.

Meine Nachbarin und ich verstehen uns gut.
My neighbor and I get along well.

Breakdown of Meine Nachbarin und ich verstehen uns gut.

und
and
ich
I
mein
my
gut
well
die Nachbarin
the neighbor
sich verstehen
to get along
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Questions & Answers about Meine Nachbarin und ich verstehen uns gut.

Why is it meine Nachbarin and not mein Nachbarin?

Because Nachbarin is grammatically feminine in German.

  • The base word: der Nachbar = the (male) neighbor
  • Feminine form: die Nachbarin = the (female) neighbor

In the nominative case (subject position):

  • masculine: mein Nachbar
  • feminine: meine Nachbarin

So you need meine to match the feminine noun Nachbarin in the nominative case.

What does the ending -in in Nachbarin mean?

The ending -in is a common way to form the feminine version of many job titles and roles in German.

Examples:

  • der Lehrer → die Lehrerin (teacher, male → female)
  • der Student → die Studentin (student, male → female)
  • der Nachbar → die Nachbarin (neighbor, male → female)

So Nachbarin tells you explicitly that the neighbor is female.

Why is the verb verstehen and not versteht?

The verb must agree with the subject. The subject here is Meine Nachbarin und ich = “my neighbor and I”, which is we (first person plural).

Conjugation of verstehen in the present tense:

  • ich verstehe
  • du verstehst
  • er/sie/es versteht
  • wir verstehen
  • ihr versteht
  • sie/Sie verstehen

So with Meine Nachbarin und ich = wir, you need verstehen (1st person plural), not versteht.

Why do we need uns in verstehen uns gut?

Here verstehen is used reflexively: sich verstehen.

  • jemanden verstehen = to understand someone (intellectually)
  • sich (miteinander) verstehen = to get along (with each other)

So verstehen uns gut literally is “understand ourselves well”, but idiomatically it means “we get along well / we get on well”.

Without uns, Wir verstehen gut would sound incomplete; listeners would expect what you understand well.

What’s the difference between wir and uns here?
  • wir = subject pronoun (nominative) → “we”
  • uns = object pronoun (accusative or dative) → “us / ourselves”

In the sentence:

  • Subject: Meine Nachbarin und ich (that’s “wir”)
  • Reflexive object: uns

So: Meine Nachbarin und ich (we) verstehen uns (understand each other) gut.

Could I say Wir verstehen uns gut instead?

Yes.

  • Wir verstehen uns gut. = We get along well.
  • Meine Nachbarin und ich verstehen uns gut. = My (female) neighbor and I get along well.

The second version just specifies who “we” are. Both are grammatically correct.

Why is gut at the end of the sentence?

German main clauses follow the V2 rule: the conjugated verb is in second position, and almost everything else can come after it.

Here’s the structure:

  1. Meine Nachbarin und ich → first position (subject phrase)
  2. verstehen → second position (verb)
  3. uns gut → the rest (reflexive pronoun + adverb)

German likes to put adverbs like gut (how well?) towards the end. So … verstehen uns gut is the natural order.

Is Meine Nachbarin und ich the subject of the sentence?

Yes.

  • Meine Nachbarin und ich is in the nominative case → subject.
  • It is a compound subject, meaning it consists of two parts joined by und (“and”).

As a whole, it behaves like wir (“we”), so the verb is in the 1st person plural: verstehen.

Could I say Ich und meine Nachbarin verstehen uns gut instead?

Grammatically, yes:

  • Ich und meine Nachbarin verstehen uns gut.

However, in both German and English it’s stylistically more polite to put yourself second:

  • Meine Nachbarin und ich … rather than Ich und meine Nachbarin …

So the original version sounds more natural and polite.

Why is Nachbarin capitalized?

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

  • die Nachbarin → always with a capital N
  • same with Haus, Auto, Freundin, etc.

So Nachbarin must start with a capital letter simply because it is a noun.

Does verstehen always need a reflexive pronoun like uns?

No. It depends on the meaning:

  1. Non‑reflexive: “to understand” (intellectually)

    • Ich verstehe dich. = I understand you.
    • Wir verstehen den Text. = We understand the text.

  2. Reflexive: “to get along (with someone)”

    • Wir verstehen uns gut. = We get along well.
    • Er und sein Bruder verstehen sich nicht. = He and his brother don’t get along.

So, when you want to say “get along”, you normally use sich verstehen with the correct reflexive pronoun.

Could I use einander instead of uns? For example: Wir verstehen einander gut.

You can, but it sounds more formal or literary, and it’s much less common in everyday speech.

  • Wir verstehen uns gut. → very natural, everyday German
  • Wir verstehen einander gut. → correct, but sounds a bit heavy / bookish

So in normal conversation, stick with uns.

What’s the most natural English translation of Meine Nachbarin und ich verstehen uns gut?

Most natural:

  • My neighbor and I get along well.

More literal:

  • My neighbor and I understand each other well.

Because sich verstehen in this context expresses the idea of getting along, the first version is usually best. Note that English doesn’t mark the neighbor as female, but German does with Nachbarin.