Learn Hardcore German: Am Wochenende nehmen wir uns mehr Zeit im Bad, da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen. - On the weekend we take more time in the bathroom, since we don’t have to go to work early.

an + dative is used very often for:
- days: am Montag, am Freitag
- parts of days: am Morgen, am Abend
- am Wochenende = on the weekend / at the weekend

So literally am Wochenende = an dem Wochenende = on/at the weekend.
You wouldn’t say auf dem Wochenende in this sense; auf would sound wrong here for time. For talking about time, German almost always uses am for days and weekends.

Why does the sentence start with Am Wochenende and then the verb nehmen comes immediately after? Could I also say Wir nehmen am Wochenende…?

German main clauses are verb-second (V2):

Exactly one element comes before the conjugated verb.
The conjugated verb comes second.
Everything else follows.

In your sentence:

Am Wochenende → first element (a time expression)
nehmen → conjugated verb (must be in 2nd position)
wir uns mehr Zeit im Bad, da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen. → rest of the clause

You could also say:

Wir nehmen am Wochenende uns mehr Zeit im Bad…

This is also correct. The meaning is the same; the version with Am Wochenende at the beginning just emphasizes when it happens. That’s common in German: putting time (or place, etc.) first for emphasis, but the verb still must stay in 2nd position.

Why do we say nehmen wir uns mehr Zeit and not just nehmen wir mehr Zeit? What does uns do here?

uns is a reflexive pronoun here. The verb is the idiomatic expression sich Zeit nehmen:

sich Zeit nehmen (für etwas) = to take (one’s) time (for something)

So:

wir nehmen uns Zeit = we take time (for ourselves) / we allow ourselves time
wir nehmen Zeit (without uns) sounds incomplete or unusual in this sense; it would just literally be we take time (as a simple object), which is not how Germans phrase this idea.

The pattern is:

ich nehme mir Zeit
du nimmst dir Zeit
er/sie/es nimmt sich Zeit
wir nehmen uns Zeit
ihr nehmt euch Zeit
sie/Sie nehmen sich Zeit

So uns is required because sich Zeit nehmen is reflexive.

What exactly does mehr Zeit mean here? Could I also say viel Zeit?

mehr Zeit = more time (comparative: compared to weekdays)
viel Zeit = a lot of time / much time (absolute amount)

In your sentence:

Am Wochenende nehmen wir uns mehr Zeit…
→ Compared with other days, we allow ourselves more time in the bathroom.

If you said:

Am Wochenende nehmen wir uns viel Zeit im Bad.
→ On the weekend we take a lot of time in the bathroom (without explicitly comparing, though it’s often implied by context).

Both are grammatically correct; they just focus slightly differently (comparison vs quantity).

Why is it im Bad and not im Badezimmer? And what is im?

im = contraction of in dem (preposition in + dative article dem).

im Bad = in dem Bad = in the bath / in the bathroom
im Badezimmer = in dem Badezimmer = in the bathroom

In everyday speech, das Bad is very commonly used to mean bathroom, not just bath.
Both:

im Bad
im Badezimmer

are correct; im Bad is simply shorter and very idiomatic.

The case: after in you use dative for location (where?) and accusative for direction (where to?).

im Bad (dative: wo? where? → in the bathroom)
ins Bad = in das Bad (accusative: wohin? where to? → into the bathroom)

What does da mean in da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen? Can I replace it with weil?

Here, da is a subordinating conjunction meaning because, very similar to weil.

da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen
= because we don’t have to go to work early

Differences:

weil: neutral, very common for because.
da: also because, but often sounds a bit more formal or written; it can emphasize a reason that is assumed to be known or obvious.

Grammatically, both cause subordinate clause word order (verb at the end):

…, weil wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen.
…, da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen.

Both are correct. In spoken, informal German, weil is more frequent; in written or a bit more formal language, da is common.

Why is müssen at the very end of the phrase da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen?

Because da introduces a subordinate clause. In German subordinate clauses:

The conjugated verb goes to the end of the clause.

Structure of the clause:

da → subordinating conjunction
wir → subject
nicht früh zur Arbeit → the rest (negation, adverb, prepositional phrase)
müssen → conjugated verb, moved to the final position

So the full main + subordinate structure is:

Main clause (V2): Am Wochenende nehmen wir uns mehr Zeit im Bad, …
Subordinate clause (V-final): … da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen.

Why is it nicht früh and not something like kein früh? How does the negation work here?

In German:

kein negates nouns (things you could put an article on).
nicht negates verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, or an entire clause.

Here, früh is an adverb (early), so you must use nicht:

nicht früh = not early

Examples:

Wir kommen nicht früh. – We’re not coming early.
Wir haben keine Zeit. – We have no time. (Zeit is a noun, so kein.)

In your sentence, nicht specifically negates früh (the time/earliness of going to work):

wir müssen nicht früh zur Arbeit (gehen)
→ We don’t have to go to work early.

What does zur Arbeit literally mean? Why zur and which case is that?

zur is the contraction of zu der:

zu
- der (feminine dative for die Arbeit) → zur

So:

zur Arbeit = zu der Arbeit = to (the) work / to work

Case:

Arbeit is feminine: die Arbeit (nominative).
After zu, you usually use the dative case, so zu der Arbeit → zur Arbeit.

Meaning-wise, zur Arbeit is the normal way to say to work (to your workplace). There are some regional alternatives like auf die Arbeit or in die Arbeit, but zur Arbeit is standard and widely used.

Can I put the da-clause at the beginning: Da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen, nehmen wir…?

Yes, that is perfectly correct and very natural:

Da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen, nehmen wir uns am Wochenende mehr Zeit im Bad.

Rules to notice:

In the subordinate clause with da, the conjugated verb müssen stays at the end.
After the comma, you start a main clause again, so it follows V2 word order:
- First element: the entire da… clause (already placed before the comma)
- Second element: nehmen (conjugated verb of the main clause)
- Then wir uns am Wochenende mehr Zeit im Bad.

So you can choose:

Am Wochenende nehmen wir uns mehr Zeit im Bad, da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen.
Da wir nicht früh zur Arbeit müssen, nehmen wir uns am Wochenende mehr Zeit im Bad.

Both are correct; the difference is just what you want to emphasize first (time vs reason).

Why is Wochenende and Bad capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized.

das Wochenende – noun → capital W
das Bad – noun → capital B

Articles and prepositions (am, im, da, zur) are lowercase; the nouns following them are uppercase.

So:

Am Wochenende = an dem Wochenende (noun → capitalized)
im Bad = in dem Bad (noun → capitalized)

This capitalization rule is strict in standard German, unlike English, where only some nouns (like proper names) are capitalized.