Learn Hardcore German: Die Alten sitzen im Garten und sprechen leise. - The elderly sit in the garden and speak quietly.

Here, Alten is a nominalized adjective – an adjective used as a noun.
Die Alten literally means “the old (ones)”, i.e. “the old people / the elders.”

In German, when an adjective is used as a noun like this, it is capitalized:

der Alte – the old man
die Alte – the old woman
die Alten – the old people / the elders

Is Die Alten singular or plural, and what case is it in?

Die Alten here is:

plural (more than one person)
nominative case (it is the subject of the sentence)

You can see it’s plural because:

the verb is sitzen (3rd person plural), not sitzt (3rd person singular),
and die is the plural nominative article for all genders.

Could Die Alten also mean “old things” or “old people I know (my parents etc.)”? How specific is it?

Context decides the nuance.

In many contexts, die Alten means “old people / the elderly” in general.
Colloquially, meine Alten can mean “my parents”, somewhat casually (and sometimes a bit cheeky).
Theoretically it could mean old things, but that’s unusual; for objects you’d normally use a more specific noun (e.g. die alten Sachen – the old stuff/things).

On its own in a neutral sentence like this, it’s most naturally “the old people / the elders.”

Is Die Alten polite, neutral, or rude?

That depends on context and tone:

In neutral description, die Alten can be okay, especially in literature or when contrasting generations.
In everyday speech, it can sound a bit blunt or slightly disrespectful, similar to saying “the old folks” or even “the old people” in a not-very-sensitive way.
For polite, neutral language, Germans more often say:
- die älteren Leute – the older people
- Senioren – seniors
- ältere Menschen – older people (more respectful/formal)

Why is it im Garten and not in dem Garten?

Im is simply the contracted form of in dem.

in (preposition) + dem (dative article, masculine/neuter singular)
→ im

So:

in dem Garten = im Garten

Both are grammatically correct; im Garten is more common in normal speech and writing.

Why is the dative case used in im Garten?

The preposition in is a two-way preposition: it can take either dative or accusative, depending on meaning.

Dative: location (where?) → in dem / im Garten = in the garden (location)
Accusative: movement (into where?) → in den Garten = into the garden (movement towards)

In this sentence, the people are already sitting somewhere (location, no movement), so dative is required: im Garten.

Why is the verb sitzen and not sitzt?

Because the subject Die Alten is plural.

er/sie/es sitzt – he/she/it sits
sie sitzen – they sit

So:

Der Alte sitzt – The old man sits. (singular)
Die Alten sitzen – The old people sit. (plural)

The verb form must agree in number (singular/plural) with the subject.

Why isn’t sie repeated before sprechen (why not … und sie sprechen leise)?

In German, if you have the same subject for two verbs joined by und, you usually don’t repeat the subject:

Die Alten sitzen im Garten und sprechen leise.

This is like English “The old people sit in the garden and speak quietly” rather than “The old people sit in the garden and they speak quietly.”

You can repeat sie:

Die Alten sitzen im Garten, und sie sprechen leise.

but it’s not necessary and often sounds more natural without the repetition when it’s clearly the same subject.

Why is it sprechen leise and not leise sprechen? Is the word order fixed?

Inside the verb phrase, both orders are possible:

sprechen leise
leise sprechen

Both mean “speak quietly / softly.”

German word order is relatively flexible here. Differences are subtle and often about rhythm or emphasis. In this short sentence, sprechen leise sounds perfectly normal and neutral.

What exactly is leise here – an adjective or an adverb?

Here leise functions as an adverb: it describes how they speak.

sprechen leise – to speak quietly / softly

In German, the adverb form of most adjectives looks the same as the base adjective:

ein leiser Ton – a quiet sound (adjective)
leise sprechen – to speak quietly (adverb)

So no extra -ly ending like in English; leise does both jobs.

Could you replace sprechen with reden here? Would the meaning change?

Yes, you could say:

Die Alten sitzen im Garten und reden leise.

Both are understandable and quite close in meaning.

Nuances (very context-dependent and not strict rules):

sprechen: slightly more neutral/formal, often used for speaking a language (Deutsch sprechen) or articulate speech.
reden: often a bit more colloquial, like talk or chat.

In this simple sentence, either verb works fine.

Is the German present tense here only simple present, or can it also mean “are sitting / are speaking”?

German Präsens (present tense) covers both:

English simple present: “The old people sit and speak quietly.”
English present progressive: “The old people are sitting and speaking quietly.”

So Die Alten sitzen im Garten und sprechen leise. can naturally be translated as:

“The old people are sitting in the garden and speaking quietly.” (most natural in everyday English here)
or
“The old people sit in the garden and speak quietly.” depending on context.