Learn Hardcore German: Wir treffen uns am See.

Wir treffen uns am See.

We meet at the lake.

Breakdown of Wir treffen uns am See.

by the; (masculine or neuter, dative)

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Questions & Answers about Wir treffen uns am See.

What does each word in Wir treffen uns am See literally mean?

Word by word:

Wir = we
treffen = meet (also can mean to hit, but here it means to meet)
uns = ourselves / each other (1st person plural reflexive pronoun)
am = at the / by the (an
- dem, contracted)
See = lake (here: masculine noun der See)

So a very literal version would be: We meet ourselves at-the lake, which in natural English is We (will) meet at the lake.

Why do we need uns here? Why not just Wir treffen am See?

In German, treffen is normally a verb that needs a direct object: you meet someone.

Wir treffen ihn am See. = We meet him at the lake.
Wir treffen die Freunde am See. = We meet the friends at the lake.

When the people who are meeting are also the people doing the action (we meet each other), German uses a reflexive pronoun:

Wir treffen uns am See. = We meet (each other) at the lake.

Without an object (or uns), Wir treffen am See is ungrammatical. The verb feels “incomplete” to a native speaker.

Does uns mean “ourselves” or “each other” here?

Literally, uns is the reflexive form of wir: ourselves.

But in sentences like Wir treffen uns, it is understood as “each other”:

Wir treffen uns am See. → We meet (each other) at the lake.

German often uses the same reflexive pronoun for both reflexive and reciprocal meanings:

reflexive: Wir waschen uns. = We wash ourselves.
reciprocal: Wir treffen uns. = We meet one another.

The exact meaning comes from context and from the verb.

What grammatical case is uns in, and why?

uns here is in the accusative case (direct object).

Reason: treffen always takes its object in the accusative:

Ich treffe dich. (dich = accusative)
Wir treffen ihn. (ihn = accusative)
Wir treffen uns. (uns = accusative)

So uns is the direct object of treffen: we meet us (i.e., we meet each other).

Why is it Wir treffen uns and not Wir sich treffen or Wir treffen sich?

In German, reflexive pronouns must match the person and number of the subject:

ich → mich / mir
du → dich / dir
er/sie/es → sich
wir → uns
ihr → euch
sie/Sie → sich

So:

Ich treffe mich.
Du triffst dich.
Er trifft sich.
Wir treffen uns. ✔
Ihr trefft euch.
Sie treffen sich.

sich is only used with 3rd person (er/sie/es, sie, Sie), not with wir. Therefore Wir treffen sich is wrong; it must be Wir treffen uns.

What exactly is am and why not just an dem See?

am is a contraction of:

an
- dem → am

So am See literally is an dem See.

In everyday German, the contracted form am is much more common and sounds more natural:

Wir treffen uns am See. ← normal
Wir treffen uns an dem See. ← grammatically correct, but sounds more formal/emphatic

Both mean “at the lake / by the lake.”

Why is it am See and not im See or in dem See?

Different prepositions describe different kinds of location:

am See (an + dem) → at / by the lake
- You are beside the lake, near it, maybe on the shore.
im See (in + dem) → in the lake
- You are inside the water, e.g. swimming.

So:

Wir treffen uns am See. = We meet at/by the lake.
Wir schwimmen im See. = We swim in the lake.

You would not normally say Wir treffen uns im See unless you literally mean: “We meet in the water of the lake.”

What case is See in, and why?

See is in the dative case:

The full phrase is an dem See → contracted to am See.
an is one of the so‑called “two-way” prepositions (an, auf, in, unter, über, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen).

With these prepositions:

Dative is used for location (where?)
Accusative is used for direction (where to?)

In this sentence, it’s a location: Where do we meet? → at the lake → dative (dem See → am See).

Is See always “lake”? I thought it could also mean “sea”.

German has two different nouns that look similar:

der See (masculine) → lake
- am See = by/at the lake
- im See = in the lake
die See (feminine) → sea (more literary/poetic; everyday German usually uses das Meer)
- an der See = at the sea
- auf der See = at sea (on a ship)

In Wir treffen uns am See, the form am = an + dem clearly shows it’s der See (masculine) → lake, not the sea.

Why is See capitalized?

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

See is a noun, so it must start with a capital letter:

Wir treffen uns am See. ✔
Wir treffen uns am see. ✘ (spelling mistake in German)

This capitalization rule is one of the biggest visual differences from English.

Can I change the word order, for example Am See treffen wir uns?

Yes. German word order is relatively flexible as long as the conjugated verb stays in the 2nd position in a main clause.

Both are correct:

Wir treffen uns am See. (neutral emphasis)
Am See treffen wir uns. (slight emphasis on “at the lake”)

In both sentences, treffen is in the 2nd position. What changes is which element comes first (the Vorfeld):

Subject first: [Wir] [treffen] [uns] [am See].
Place first: [Am See] [treffen] [wir] [uns].

English is less flexible here; in German, moving elements like this is very common.

How is treffen conjugated, and is it a regular verb?

treffen is irregular (a vowel change in the singular):

ich treffe
du triffst
er/sie/es trifft
wir treffen
ihr trefft
sie/Sie treffen

Notice the vowel change e → i in du triffst and er/sie/es trifft.

In our sentence we have wir treffen (no vowel change in plural forms).

Does Wir treffen uns am See mean “we meet” or “we will meet”?

It can mean both, depending on context.

German uses the present tense very often to talk about the near future, especially with a time expression:

Morgen treffen wir uns am See.
→ Tomorrow we’re meeting at the lake. / We will meet at the lake tomorrow.

Even without an explicit time word, in the right context it often has a future meaning, just like English:

Wir treffen uns am See. (said while making plans)
→ We’ll meet at the lake.

If you really want to emphasize the future, you can use Futur I:

Wir werden uns am See treffen.
But this is not usually necessary in everyday speech.

Could Wir treffen uns am See also mean “We hit ourselves at the lake”?

In theory, treffen can mean “to hit” (like hitting a target):

Die Kugel trifft ihn. = The bullet hits him.
Ich habe das Ziel getroffen. = I hit the target.

But with uns and without any further context, Wir treffen uns is automatically understood as “We meet (each other)”, not we hit ourselves.

For “hit” yourself, Germans would much more naturally use schlagen or be more specific:

Wir schlagen uns am See. = We beat each other up at the lake.

So in everyday language, Wir treffen uns am See is unambiguously we (will) meet at the lake.

Could I say Wir sehen uns am See instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, Wir sehen uns am See is also correct, but it has a slightly different flavor:

Wir treffen uns am See.
→ We meet at the lake (we arrange to meet there).
Wir sehen uns am See.
→ We see each other at the lake / We’ll see each other at the lake.

treffen (sich treffen) emphasizes the meeting / appointment itself.
sehen (sich sehen) focuses more on the fact of seeing each other, often as a side-effect:

Wir treffen uns am See. = planned meeting.
Vielleicht sehen wir uns am See. = Maybe we’ll see each other at the lake (not necessarily a firm plan).

In many casual contexts, Wir sehen uns am See can function like a more relaxed way of saying “See you at the lake.”

Where would a time expression go in this sentence?

Common pattern in German main clauses is:

Subject – Verb – (other elements: time, manner, place, etc.)

But time and place can move. Typical options:

Wir treffen uns morgen am See.
Wir treffen uns am See morgen. (less common, but possible)
Morgen treffen wir uns am See. (emphasis on tomorrow)

Most natural: Time before place:

Wir treffen uns morgen am See. = We’ll meet at the lake tomorrow.