Breakdown of Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich kochen abends zusammen.
Questions & Answers about Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich kochen abends zusammen.
Because the subject is plural in meaning.
Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich = wir (my roommate and I = we).
In German, the verb agrees with the grammatical person and number of the subject:
- ich koche – I cook
- du kochst – you (singular, informal) cook
- er/sie/es kocht – he/she/it cooks
- wir kochen – we cook
- ihr kocht – you (plural, informal) cook
- sie/Sie kochen – they / you (formal) cook
Since Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich is equivalent to wir, the verb must be kochen, the wir form, not kocht (the er/sie/es or ihr form).
Both are grammatically correct, but Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich is stylistically preferred.
In both English and German, it is considered more polite and more natural to mention the other person first and yourself second:
- Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich – my roommate and I
- (less preferred, but possible) Ich und meine Mitbewohnerin
So it’s mainly a matter of style and politeness, not grammar.
Because all nouns in German are capitalized, regardless of where they appear in the sentence.
- Mitbewohnerin is a noun, so it must start with a capital letter.
- This applies to common nouns, not only to proper names.
Examples:
- Das Buch ist neu. – The book is new.
- Meine Mitbewohnerin ist nett. – My roommate is nice.
- Wir essen heute Pizza. – We are eating pizza today.
Mitbewohnerin means female roommate / flatmate / housemate.
It’s a compound:
- mit – with
- wohnen – to live
- Bewohner – inhabitant
- Mitbewohner – (male or generic) roommate / housemate
- Mitbewohnerin – explicitly female roommate (the -in ending marks feminine).
Related forms:
- der Mitbewohner – male or generic roommate
- die Mitbewohnerin – female roommate
- die Mitbewohner – roommates (mixed or all-male)
- die Mitbewohnerinnen – female roommates (plural)
Because Meine Mitbewohnerin is the subject of the sentence and therefore in the nominative case, singular, feminine.
The possessive mein- has to agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun it modifies:
For feminine, singular, nominative (like die Mitbewohnerin):
- meine Mitbewohnerin – my roommate (as subject)
If it were in a different case, the form would change:
- Ich helfe meiner Mitbewohnerin. – I help my roommate.
Here meiner is dative, feminine, singular.
In your sentence:
- Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich = the subject (who is cooking) → nominative → meine.
Because ich is in the nominative case, and it is part of the subject of the sentence.
- Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich together form the subject (who is doing the cooking).
You use:
- ich (nominative) for the subject:
Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich kochen … - mich (accusative) for the direct object:
Meine Mitbewohnerin sieht mich. – My roommate sees me.
So after und, you choose the case required by the role in the sentence. Here the phrase is the subject → nominative → ich.
Both are in the nominative case.
- The whole subject is Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich.
- Subjects of normal main clauses in German are in the nominative case.
So:
- Meine Mitbewohnerin – nominative, singular, feminine
- ich – nominative, singular, first person
If they were objects, the case would change, for example:
- Siehst du meine Mitbewohnerin und mich? – Do you see my roommate and me?
- meine Mitbewohnerin – accusative
- mich – accusative
Both are possible, but they have different nuances:
abends = in the evenings / at night in general, a habit, something that usually happens.
- Wir kochen abends zusammen. – We cook together in the evenings (as a routine).
am Abend = in the evening, more like on that evening or a specific time frame (though it can sometimes be general too).
- Wir kochen am Abend zusammen. – We cook together in the evening (today / a particular evening, or more like a time frame: in the evening rather than in the morning).
Your sentence with abends clearly expresses a regular habit.
Yes. Adverbs of time are quite flexible, as long as the finite verb stays in the second position in a main clause.
All of these are correct (with slightly different emphasis):
Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich kochen abends zusammen.
– Neutral word order.Abends kochen meine Mitbewohnerin und ich zusammen.
– Emphasis on abends (the time).Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich kochen zusammen abends.
– Possible, but sounds less natural; zusammen usually comes before other adverbs of time.
Most natural are usually 1 and 2.
Wir zusammen kochen abends is wrong, because the finite verb must be in the second position.
Valid placements of zusammen include:
- Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich kochen abends zusammen.
- Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich kochen zusammen abends. (understandable, but less common)
- Zusammen kochen meine Mitbewohnerin und ich abends.
- Abends kochen meine Mitbewohnerin und ich zusammen.
General tendencies:
In neutral sentences, zusammen usually comes after the verb and before most other adverbs:
… kochen zusammen abends. / … kochen abends zusammen.Putting Zusammen at the very start gives emphasis to the idea of togetherness:
Zusammen kochen wir … – Together, we cook …
In German main clauses, the finite verb must be in the second element position, not the second word position.
- Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich is one element (the subject phrase).
- The verb kochen is the second element.
You can see the same pattern in other sentences:
- Heute (1st element) kochen (2nd element) wir zusammen.
- Abends (1st element) kochen (2nd element) meine Mitbewohnerin und ich zusammen.
So even if the first element has several words, it still counts as “position 1,” and the finite verb must follow it in “position 2.”
No. In German you normally cannot drop personal pronouns; German is not a pro-drop language.
You must keep the pronoun ich:
- Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich kochen abends zusammen. – correct
- Meine Mitbewohnerin kochen abends zusammen. – wrong
(also wrong because Mitbewohnerin is singular but kochen is plural)
Exception: Pronouns can sometimes be omitted in imperatives and in some casual speech forms, but not in a standard sentence like this.
meine agrees with the noun it modifies (the possessed thing), not with the possessor.
- Possessor: ich
- Possessive stem: mein-
- Noun: Mitbewohnerin – feminine, singular, nominative
→ Form: meine Mitbewohnerin
Compare:
- mein Mitbewohner – my (male) roommate (masculine, singular, nominative)
- meine Mitbewohnerinnen – my (female) roommates (feminine, plural, nominative/accusative)
- mit meiner Mitbewohnerin – with my roommate (feminine, singular, dative)
So the ending -e, -er, -em, -en etc. depends on gender, number, and case of the noun, not on ich/du/er….
You would normally use the Perfekt (present perfect) in spoken German:
- Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich haben gestern Abend zusammen gekocht.
Breakdown:
- Meine Mitbewohnerin und ich – my roommate and I (subject)
- haben – auxiliary verb (wir-form of haben)
- gestern Abend – last night / yesterday evening
- zusammen – together
- gekocht – past participle of kochen
Word order follows the standard rule: finite verb in 2nd position, past participle at the end.