Learn Hardcore German: Die Kellnerin kennt unsere Namen, weil wir jede Woche in dieser Kneipe sitzen. - The waitress knows our names because we sit in this pub every week.

In a main clause, the conjugated verb is in second position:
- Die Kellnerin kennt unsere Namen.
  (kennt is in position 2.)
Weil introduces a subordinate clause (Nebensatz), and in such clauses the conjugated verb goes to the end:
- …, weil wir jede Woche in dieser Kneipe sitzen.
  Here sitzen must go to the last position in that clause.

If you start the sentence with the weil‑clause, the rule is the same inside the clause:

Weil wir jede Woche in dieser Kneipe sitzen, kennt die Kellnerin unsere Namen.

Inside the weil-clause, sitzen still goes to the end, no matter where that clause stands in the overall sentence.

Why is it unsere Namen and not unsere Name or unseren Namen?

A few things are going on here:

Plural vs. singular
- unsere Namen = our names (plural)
- unseren Namen = our name (singular, accusative masculine)
- The sentence talks about several people whose names the waitress knows, so plural is logical: Namen.
Case (Akkusativ)
unsere Namen is the direct object of kennt:
- Who knows what? → The waitress knows our names.
  Direct objects are in the accusative.
  For possessive unser-, the accusative plural ending is -e:
- unsere Namen (Akk. Pl.)
The noun Name
der Name is a so‑called weak noun. Its forms are:
- Singular:
  - Nominative: der Name
  - Accusative: den Namen
- Plural:
  - Nominative/Accusative: die Namen
So:
- Singular acc.: unseren Namen (our name – one name)
- Plural acc.: unsere Namen (our names – more than one)

In this sentence, plural accusative is needed, so unsere Namen is correct.

Why is it kennt and not weiß? What’s the difference between kennen and wissen?

Both mean to know, but they’re used differently:

kennen = to be familiar with a person, place, thing, or piece of information as an object.
- Ich kenne ihn. – I know him.
- Sie kennt unsere Namen. – She knows our names.
wissen = to know a fact, usually expressed with a clause or an indirect question:
- Ich weiß, wie er heißt. – I know what his name is.
- Sie weiß, dass wir jede Woche kommen. – She knows that we come every week.

You cannot say:

*Die Kellnerin weiß unsere Namen. (wrong in standard German)

Instead, you’d say:

Die Kellnerin kennt unsere Namen.
or
Die Kellnerin weiß, wie wir heißen. – The waitress knows what we are called.

Why is it in dieser Kneipe and not in diese Kneipe?

The preposition in can take either dative or accusative, depending on the meaning:

Dative = location (where something is / sits / happens).
Accusative = direction (where something goes / moves to).

Here the meaning is location (we sit in that pub), so we use dative.

die Kneipe (feminine, nominative)
Dative feminine singular: der Kneipe

With dies-:

Nominative feminine: diese Kneipe
Dative feminine: dieser Kneipe

So for location:

Wir sitzen in dieser Kneipe. – We sit / hang out in this pub.

If it were about movement into the pub:

Wir gehen in diese Kneipe. – We go into this pub.

Why is it jede Woche and not jeder Woche or jeden Woche?

Look at gender and case:

Woche is feminine:
- die Woche
jede Woche is an adverbial of time: every week.
Time expressions like this are usually in the accusative.
Feminine singular in the accusative with jede- is:
- Nominative: jede Woche
- Accusative: jede Woche
  (They look the same.)

So:

jede Woche = correct (feminine, acc.)
jeder Woche = dative feminine (e.g. bei jeder Woche), not used here
jeden Woche = wrong, because -en is for masculine acc. sg., not feminine

Also note the logic: German, like English, uses the singular with jede/every:

jede Woche = every week (not every weeks)

Can the word order wir jede Woche in dieser Kneipe sitzen be changed, for example to wir in dieser Kneipe jede Woche sitzen?

Yes, you have some flexibility, but there is a preferred order.

The usual order for adverbials in German is often taught as Te-Ka-Mo-Lo:

Temporal (time)
Kausal (reason)
Modal (manner)
Lokal (place)

In the clause wir jede Woche in dieser Kneipe sitzen:

jede Woche = time (Te)
in dieser Kneipe = place (Lo)

So the standard order is:

wir jede Woche in dieser Kneipe sitzen

Other orders like:

wir in dieser Kneipe jede Woche sitzen

are grammatically possible, but they sound marked or emphasize something different (e.g. stressing in dieser Kneipe or jede Woche in a special way). For a neutral, natural sentence, jede Woche before in dieser Kneipe is best.

Why is it sitzen here? In English we just say “because we are in this pub every week”, not “sit in this pub”.

In German, sitzen is often used to mean sit somewhere for a while / hang out somewhere, especially in contexts like cafés, pubs, and bars.

So:

Wir sitzen in dieser Kneipe.
can mean more broadly:
- We are (sitting) in this pub.
- We hang out in this pub.

Alternatives, with slightly different nuances:

…, weil wir jede Woche in dieser Kneipe sind.
→ more neutral “are in this pub”
…, weil wir jede Woche in diese Kneipe gehen.
→ focuses on going there regularly, not on sitting there

Using sitzen emphasizes that you are regulars who spend time there, sitting at the tables/bar, which fits the idea that the waitress learns your names.

Why Die Kellnerin? What does the ending -in mean?

The ending -in marks the female form of many job titles and roles in German.

der Kellner = the (male) waiter
die Kellnerin = the (female) waitress

Other examples:

der Lehrer / die Lehrerin – (male / female teacher)
der Student / die Studentin – (male / female student)

In current German, there’s a lot of discussion about gender‑neutral forms (like die Servicekraft, die Bedienung, das Personal), but in this sentence Kellnerin clearly tells you the person is female.

Why are Kellnerin, Namen, Woche, and Kneipe capitalized?

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

So:

die Kellnerin – noun (waitress)
die Namen – noun (names)
die Woche – noun (week)
die Kneipe – noun (pub)

Verbs (kennt, sitzen), pronouns (wir), determiners (unsere, jede, dieser) are not capitalized (except at the beginning of a sentence, of course).

This is a key spelling rule in German: if it’s a noun, write it with a capital letter.

Could we use denn instead of weil? What would change?

Yes, you could say:

Die Kellnerin kennt unsere Namen, denn wir sitzen jede Woche in dieser Kneipe.

Differences:

Grammar (word order)
- weil introduces a subordinate clause, so the verb goes to the end:
  - …, weil wir jede Woche in dieser Kneipe sitzen.
- denn is a coordinating conjunction, so the next clause has normal main-clause word order (verb in 2nd position):
  - …, denn wir sitzen jede Woche in dieser Kneipe.
Style and usage
- weil is very common in spoken and written German.
- denn is somewhat more formal/written and a bit less common in everyday casual speech for “because”.

The meaning (cause/reason) is essentially the same here: the waitress knows your names because you sit there every week.