Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute.

I am sending my email to the publishing house today.

Breakdown of Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute.

• dem: the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
• ich: I
• heute: today
• noch: still
• mein: my
• die E-Mail: the email
• senden: to send
• der Verlag: the publishing house

Questions & Answers about Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute.

Why is it dem Verlag and not den Verlag or der Verlag?

Verlag (publisher) is a masculine noun: der Verlag.

In the sentence, Verlag is the indirect object (“to the publisher”), so it must be in the dative case:

• Nominative (subject): der Verlag
• Accusative (direct object): den Verlag
• Dative (indirect object): dem Verlag ← used here

German often uses a dative noun without a preposition to express “to someone”:

• Ich sende dem Verlag meine E‑Mail. = I send the publisher my email.
  (literally: I send to the publisher my email.)

So dem is required because Verlag is masculine in the dative case.

Why is meine E-Mail in the accusative case?

E-Mail is the direct object (“my email” is what is being sent). Direct objects take the accusative case.

• Feminine noun: die E-Mail
• Accusative singular of feminine nouns is usually the same as nominative: die E-Mail

With a possessive:

• meine E-Mail is feminine accusative (same form as nominative).

Structure of the sentence:

• Ich – subject (nominative)
• sende – verb
• dem Verlag – indirect object (dative)
• meine E-Mail – direct object (accusative)

Could the word order be Ich sende meine E-Mail dem Verlag noch heute instead?

Yes, that word order is grammatically correct:

• Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute.
• Ich sende meine E-Mail dem Verlag noch heute.

Both are possible. Some tendencies:

• If both objects are nouns, German often prefers dative before accusative:
  dem Verlag (dat) meine E-Mail (acc) → the original version.
• If one object is a pronoun, the pronoun usually comes first:
  Ich sende sie dem Verlag. / Ich sende sie ihm.

So your alternative is okay, but dem Verlag meine E-Mail will usually sound a bit more natural.

What exactly does noch heute mean? Is it the same as just heute?

heute = today
noch heute adds the idea of before today is over / still today / by the end of today.

Nuance:

• Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail heute.
  → neutral: I’m doing it today.
• Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute.
  → emphasizes that you will definitely do it before the day ends, maybe sooner than expected, or in response to a deadline or promise.

In spoken German you’ll also hear heute noch, which is very common and has basically the same meaning.

Can I also say heute noch instead of noch heute? Is there a difference?

Yes, both are correct:

• Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute.
• Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail heute noch.

heute noch is probably more frequent in everyday speech.
The meaning is the same: I’ll still send it today / before today is over. Any difference is very slight and stylistic.

Why is the verb sende in the present tense if the action is in the (near) future?

German very often uses the present tense for future actions, especially when there is a time expression like heute, morgen, nächste Woche, etc.

• Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute.
  → I’ll send my email to the publisher today.
• Ich fahre morgen nach Berlin.
  → I’m going to Berlin tomorrow.

You can use the future tense (ich werde senden), but it is not necessary here and sounds more formal or emphatic:

• Ich werde dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute senden.

In everyday German, the present + time expression is the normal choice.

What is the difference between senden and schicken?

Both mean to send, and in many contexts they’re interchangeable:

• Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail.
• Ich schicke dem Verlag meine E-Mail.

Nuances:

• senden can sound a bit more formal or technical (email, signals, TV/radio broadcast, etc.).
• schicken is very common and colloquial, used for letters, parcels, emails, people, etc.

In an email context, both are fine. Learners are safe using schicken in everyday speech and senden in more formal writing, but Germans mix them a lot.

Could I say Ich schicke dem Verlag noch heute eine E-Mail instead? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, that’s perfectly natural German:

• Ich schicke dem Verlag noch heute eine E-Mail.

Differences:

• eine E-Mail = an email (one email), unspecified
• meine E-Mail = my email (a specific email already known or referred to)

So the original sentence refers to a specific email (e.g. the manuscript email you’ve talked about), while eine E-Mail is more general.

Why is there no preposition like an? Could I say an den Verlag?

German allows both structures:

1. Dative without preposition (double object pattern)

   • Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail.
     (I send the publisher my email.)

2. Preposition an

   • accusative
   • Ich sende meine E-Mail an den Verlag.
     (literally: I send my email to the publisher.)

Both are correct and common.

Nuance:

• Pattern 1 (jemandem etwas senden/schicken) focuses a bit more on the recipient as an indirect object.
• Pattern 2 (etwas an jemanden senden/schicken) feels a little more explicit or formal, common in written/instructional language (e.g. forms: Bitte senden Sie Ihre Bewerbung an...).

In everyday speech, both versions are natural.

Why is Verlag capitalized?

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

• der Verlag, die E-Mail, das Buch, heute Abend (here Abend is a noun).

So Verlag and E-Mail must begin with capital letters because they are nouns.

Is E-Mail always written with a hyphen? What about its gender?

Spelling:

• Standard: die E-Mail (with hyphen and capital E and M).
• You may also see Email in informal writing, but that is less standard and can be confused with der Email (enamel).

Gender:

• E-Mail is feminine: die E-Mail, eine E-Mail, meine E-Mail.

Plural:

• die E-Mails (emails).

Can I move noch heute to the beginning of the sentence? How does that affect word order?

Yes:

• Noch heute sende ich dem Verlag meine E-Mail.

In a German main clause, the finite verb must stay in second position. If you put noch heute at the beginning, it occupies the first position, so the verb (sende) must follow immediately, and the subject (ich) moves after the verb.

Compare:

• Ich sende dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute.
• Noch heute sende ich dem Verlag meine E-Mail.

Both are correct; the second version emphasizes “still today” a bit more.

How would this look in a subordinate clause introduced by dass?

In a subordinate clause, the conjugated verb goes to the end of the clause:

• …, dass ich dem Verlag meine E-Mail noch heute sende.

Word order:

• dass – subordinator
• ich – subject
• dem Verlag – indirect object (dative)
• meine E-Mail – direct object (accusative)
• noch heute – time
• sende – verb at the end

Is sende a common form? I thought it would be schicke or schreibe in speech.

sende is grammatically correct (1st person singular of senden), and it’s used, but in everyday spoken German people often say:

• Ich schicke dem Verlag noch heute eine E-Mail.
• Ich schreibe dem Verlag noch heute eine E-Mail. (focus on writing, not on the act of sending)

sende does not sound wrong or weird; it just can feel a bit more formal or written than schicke in everyday conversation.