Abends schreibe ich in mein Tagebuch, bevor ich schlafen gehe.

In the evening I write in my diary before I go to sleep.

Breakdown of Abends schreibe ich in mein Tagebuch, bevor ich schlafen gehe.

• in: in
• ich: I
• mein: my
• schreiben: to write
• bevor: before
• abends: in the evening
• das Tagebuch: the diary
• schlafen gehen: to go to sleep

Questions & Answers about Abends schreibe ich in mein Tagebuch, bevor ich schlafen gehe.

Why is Abends at the beginning of the sentence, and could I also say Ich schreibe abends in mein Tagebuch?

Yes, you can also say Ich schreibe abends in mein Tagebuch.

German has a flexible word order in the “middle” of the sentence, but it has a strong rule called verb-second (V2) in main clauses:

• The finite verb (here: schreibe) must be in second position.
• In front of that verb you can put only one element (subject, time, place, object, etc.).

So:

• Abends schreibe ich in mein Tagebuch …
  – “Abends” (time) is the first element → schreibe must be second → ich comes after the verb.

• Ich schreibe abends in mein Tagebuch …
  – “Ich” (subject) is the first element → schreibe is still second → “abends” moves later.

Both are correct.
Difference: starting with Abends puts extra emphasis on when you do it (“In the evenings, I write in my diary …”).

What exactly is the difference between Abends, am Abend, and am Abende?

All are related to “evening,” but they’re used slightly differently.

• abends (lowercase, with -s) = an adverb meaning
  “in the evenings / in the evening (generally, habitually)”

  • Abends schreibe ich in mein Tagebuch.
    = I do this regularly in the evenings.

• am Abend = literally “on the evening” or “in the evening” of a specific time, or at least more concrete.

  • Am Abend schreibe ich in mein Tagebuch.
    → Often understood as this evening or an evening that’s in focus.

• am Abende = old-fashioned / poetic variant of am Abend; hardly used in modern everyday German.

So for a habitual action like “In the evenings, I write in my diary,” Abends is the most natural.

Why is schreibe before ich? In English we say “I write”, not “Write I”.

This is again the verb-second rule in German main clauses.

The structure of the clause is:

1. First position: one complete element → Abends (a time expression)
2. Second position: the conjugated verb → schreibe
3. Then the rest: ich in mein Tagebuch

So:

• Abends (1st element)
• schreibe (2nd element; verb)
• ich in mein Tagebuch (the rest)

If the subject comes first, German looks more like English:

• Ich schreibe abends in mein Tagebuch.

But as soon as another element is moved to the first position (for emphasis, etc.), the verb still has to be second, and the subject moves after it:

• Abends schreibe ich …
• In meinem Zimmer schreibe ich …
• Heute schreibe ich …

Why is it in mein Tagebuch and not in meinem Tagebuch?

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

• Accusative (Wohin? – where to?) → movement into something
• Dative (Wo? – where?) → location / no change of place

Here we have in mein Tagebuch with accusative:

• in mein Tagebuch schreiben = to write into my diary (the writing “goes into” it)

If you used dative:

• in meinem Tagebuch would describe a location: “in my diary” as a place, e.g.
  Es steht in meinem Tagebuch. – “It is written in my diary.”

But with the verb schreiben in this expression, German normally focuses on the direction of the writing (into the diary), so it uses accusative:

• Ich schreibe in mein Tagebuch. ✅
• Ich schreibe in meinem Tagebuch. ❌ (not idiomatic in this meaning)

Why is it mein Tagebuch and not something like meinem Tagebuch or meinen Tagebuch?

You have:

• the preposition in
  • accusative (see previous answer)
• the noun Tagebuch, which is neuter: das Tagebuch (singular)

Neuter declension with a possessive like mein-:

• Nominative: mein Tagebuch
• Accusative: mein Tagebuch
• Dative: meinem Tagebuch
• Genitive: meines Tagebuchs

Since in here takes accusative, you need the accusative neuter form → mein Tagebuch (which looks the same as nominative for neuter).

Examples for contrast:

• Ich lege das Buch in meinen Rucksack. (masc., accusative: meinen)
• Ich lege das Buch in meine Tasche. (fem., accusative: meine)
• Ich schreibe in mein Tagebuch. (neuter, accusative: mein)

Could I say in das Tagebuch instead of in mein Tagebuch?

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly:

• in das Tagebuch schreiben
  = “write into the diary” (some diary, maybe already known from context)

• in mein Tagebuch schreiben
  = “write into my diary” (emphasises possession)

If you use the definite article das, there is also a common contraction:

• in das Tagebuch → ins Tagebuch

So both are correct in the right context:

• Ich schreibe abends in mein Tagebuch. (my own diary)
• Der Arzt schreibt etwas in das / ins Tagebuch des Patienten. (the patient’s diary, not the doctor’s)

Why is there a comma before bevor?

In German, subordinate clauses (Nebensätze) must be separated from the main clause by a comma.

• Main clause: Abends schreibe ich in mein Tagebuch
• Subordinate clause: bevor ich schlafen gehe

The conjunction bevor introduces a time clause (when something happens). All such clauses introduced by words like weil, dass, wenn, bevor, nachdem, obwohl etc. are subordinate clauses and need a comma:

• …, weil ich müde bin.
• …, dass ich keine Zeit habe.
• …, bevor ich schlafen gehe. ✅

So the comma here is not optional; it is required in standard German.

Why is the word order bevor ich schlafen gehe and not bevor ich gehe schlafen or bevor ich gehe?

In subordinate clauses introduced by bevor, the conjugated verb has to go to the end of the clause.

Structure:

• bevor (subordinating conjunction)
• ich (subject)
• schlafen (infinitive)
• gehe (finite verb, goes to the end)

So:

• bevor ich schlafen gehe ✅ (correct subordinate-clause word order)

If bevor were not there and you had a main clause, you could say:

• Ich gehe schlafen. (main clause: V2 order)

But with bevor, we have a subordinate clause, and then the rule is:

In subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb (here gehe) goes to the last position.

That’s why bevor ich schlafen gehe is correct, and bevor ich gehe schlafen sounds wrong in standard German.

Why are there two verbs, schlafen and gehe? Why not just bevor ich schlafe?

The phrase schlafen gehen is a very common German expression meaning “to go to bed / go to sleep”.

• schlafen gehen literally: “to go sleep”
• idiomatically: “to go to bed,” “to go (off) to sleep”

So:

• bevor ich schlafen gehe
  = before I go to bed / before I go to sleep

You could say bevor ich schlafe, but that sounds unusual here and a bit off: it focuses only on the state of sleeping, not the act of going to bed. Normally, when we talk about what we do in the evening before bed, we use schlafen gehen:

• Ich putze mir die Zähne, bevor ich schlafen gehe. ✅
• Ich lese noch kurz, bevor ich schlafen gehe. ✅

So schlafen gehe is simply the natural idiomatic choice.

Why are both verbs in the present tense? In English we might say “before I go to sleep” or “before I go to bed”, but that can also refer to the future.

German uses the present tense very often where English might use different tenses. In this sentence, the present tense expresses a habitual action:

• Abends schreibe ich in mein Tagebuch, bevor ich schlafen gehe.
  = “In the evenings, I (usually / regularly) write in my diary before I go to bed.”

For:

• regular / habitual actions → present tense is standard.
• near future (“I’m doing it later today”) → German also frequently uses present instead of werden + infinitive.

You could use a future form (werde schreiben, werde schlafen gehen), but it would usually add a more specific future meaning (“this particular evening / in the future I will do this”), and that doesn’t fit the generic, habitual sense in the example.