Learn Hardcore German: Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung. - We are paying the electricity bill today.

Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung.

We are paying the electricity bill today.

Breakdown of Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung.

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Questions & Answers about Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung.

Why is the verb bezahlen in second position after Wir? In English I’d say “We pay the electricity bill today,” where “today” is not right after “we.”

German main clauses follow the V2 rule: the conjugated verb must be in second position in the sentence, no matter what comes first.

In Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung.

Wir = first element
bezahlen (the conjugated verb) = second element
heute die Stromrechnung = everything else follows

If you move heute to the beginning for emphasis, the verb still stays second:

Heute bezahlen wir die Stromrechnung.
(Heute = first element, bezahlen = second, wir die Stromrechnung = rest)

So what matters is not “subject first” but “verb second.”

Could I also say Heute bezahlen wir die Stromrechnung or Wir bezahlen die Stromrechnung heute? Do they mean the same thing?

Yes, both are correct and mean essentially the same thing: “We’re paying the electricity bill today.”

Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung.
– Neutral; normal word order (subject–verb–time–object).
Heute bezahlen wir die Stromrechnung.
– Emphasis on heute (“today”): sounds like “Today (and not some other day) we’re paying the bill.”
Wir bezahlen die Stromrechnung heute.
– Also correct. Time adverbs often appear right after the verb, but putting heute at the end is allowed and quite common in speech. It can sound a bit more like you’re adding “today” as an afterthought.

All three are grammatical. The main difference is emphasis and style, not meaning.

Why is it die Stromrechnung and not der Stromrechnung? How do I know the gender and case here?

Stromrechnung is a feminine noun in German:

die Stromrechnung = the electricity bill

The article die can mark different things, but here:

Wir is the subject (nominative).
die Stromrechnung is the direct object of bezahlen.

Direct objects take the accusative case. For feminine nouns, nominative and accusative both use die, so:

Nominative singular feminine: die Stromrechnung
Accusative singular feminine: die Stromrechnung

So it’s die, not der, because:

Gender: Stromrechnung is feminine.
Case: It’s accusative (direct object).

Der Stromrechnung would be dative singular (for example: mit der Stromrechnung = “with the electricity bill”), which doesn’t fit here.

Why is Stromrechnung written as one word and capitalized? Could I write Strom Rechnung?

In German:

All nouns are capitalized.
- Stromrechnung is a noun, so it starts with a capital letter.
German loves compound nouns: two (or more) nouns are often joined into one word.
- Strom = electricity, power
- Rechnung = bill, invoice
- Stromrechnung = electricity bill

You cannot write Strom Rechnung as two separate words in standard German. It must be Stromrechnung.

What is the difference between bezahlen and zahlen? Could I say Wir zahlen heute die Stromrechnung?

You can say:

Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung.
Wir zahlen heute die Stromrechnung.

Both are correct and natural; bezahlen and zahlen overlap a lot in everyday use.

Typical patterns:

bezahlen is often followed directly by what you pay:
- Wir bezahlen die Stromrechnung.
- Ich bezahle das Essen.
zahlen can also take a direct object, but is very common with a prepositional phrase:
- Ich zahle für das Essen. (I pay for the food.)
- Wir zahlen die Rechnung. (also fine)

In modern spoken German, people frequently use zahlen and bezahlen almost interchangeably in sentences like this. Here, Wir zahlen heute die Stromrechnung sounds perfectly natural.

How is bezahlen conjugated, and what is its infinitive form?

The infinitive is bezahlen (to pay).

Present tense (Präsens) conjugation:

ich bezahle – I pay / am paying
du bezahlst – you (singular, informal) pay
er / sie / es bezahlt – he / she / it pays
wir bezahlen – we pay
ihr bezahlt – you (plural, informal) pay
sie bezahlen – they pay
Sie bezahlen – you (formal, singular & plural) pay

In your sentence:

Wir bezahlen = “we pay / we are paying.”

Is bezahlen a separable verb? Should it be split like be- and zahlen?

No, bezahlen is not separable.

German has many separable prefix verbs (like aufstehen → Ich stehe auf), but be- is one of the prefixes that make a verb inseparable:

bezahlen always stays together:
- Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung.
- Wir haben heute die Stromrechnung bezahlt.

The prefix be- is never separated from the verb.

Why is it Wir and not Uns at the beginning of the sentence?

Wir and uns are different cases of the same pronoun:

wir = nominative plural (“we”) – used for the subject
uns = accusative or dative plural (“us”) – used for objects

In Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung:

Wir is the subject (the ones doing the paying) → nominative → wir
die Stromrechnung is the direct object (what we pay) → accusative

You would use uns if “us” were an object, for example:

Die Firma schickt uns die Stromrechnung.
(“The company sends us the electricity bill.”)
– uns is the indirect object (dative)

How would I say this in the past tense, like “We paid the electricity bill today”?

Most commonly in spoken German you use the Perfekt (present perfect):

Wir haben heute die Stromrechnung bezahlt.
= We (have) paid the electricity bill today.

Structure:

Auxiliary verb haben (conjugated): wir haben
Past participle of bezahlen: bezahlt (goes to the end)
Word order of heute and die Stromrechnung can shift a bit, but this is the standard.

You could also use Präteritum (simple past):

Wir bezahlten heute die Stromrechnung.

This is grammatically correct but sounds more written or formal; in everyday speech, Wir haben … bezahlt is much more common.

Why is heute not capitalized?

In German:

Nouns are capitalized.
Adverbs (like heute = today) are not capitalized.

In the sentence:

Wir – pronoun, capitalized only because it’s the first word.
bezahlen – verb, not capitalized.
heute – adverb, not capitalized.
die Stromrechnung – noun phrase; Stromrechnung is a noun, so it’s capitalized.

So heute is lowercase because it’s an adverb, not a noun.

What exactly does Stromrechnung mean? Is it just “electricity bill”?

Yes, Stromrechnung is best translated as “electricity bill” or “power bill.”

Breakdown:

Strom = electricity, electric power
Rechnung = bill, invoice

Together: Stromrechnung = the bill you receive from your electricity provider.

Could I say unsere Stromrechnung instead of die Stromrechnung? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Wir bezahlen heute unsere Stromrechnung.
= We’re paying our electricity bill today.

Difference:

die Stromrechnung implies a specific, already known electricity bill (from context).
unsere Stromrechnung makes it explicit that it’s our bill, not someone else’s.

Both are natural; in many contexts they would be interchangeable, because it’s usually clear you’re talking about your own bill.

Where does heute usually go in a German sentence with other elements like subject, verb, object?

A common neutral order for main clauses is:

Subject
Conjugated verb
Time
Manner
Place
Other stuff

So the “default” would be something like:

Wir bezahlen heute die Stromrechnung.
(Subject – verb – time – object)

But you can also put time expressions like heute at the very beginning for emphasis:

Heute bezahlen wir die Stromrechnung.

And in spoken German, you sometimes hear time elements later in the sentence:

Wir bezahlen die Stromrechnung heute.

All three are correct; the subject-verb-time-object pattern just sounds especially neutral and natural.