Learn Hardcore German: Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen Fernsehen. - In the evenings we sometimes watch TV together.

Abends expresses a habitual or repeated action:
- Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.
  = In the evenings (as a general habit), we sometimes watch TV together.
am Abend usually refers to a specific evening or a particular time frame:
- Am Abend sehen wir zusammen Fernsehen.
  = This evening / on that evening we are going to watch TV together.

So:

Abends → generally, on evenings (regular habit).
am Abend → on a (this/that) particular evening, or more like “in the evening” as a time of one day.

Why does the sentence start with Abends and then have sehen second? Could I also start with Wir?

German main clauses follow the verb-second rule (V2): the conjugated verb must be in second position.

In your sentence:

Abends (first position – a time adverb)
sehen (second position – conjugated verb)
wir manchmal zusammen Fernsehen (rest of the sentence)

You can absolutely start with Wir instead:

Wir sehen abends manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.

Both are correct. The difference is emphasis:

Abends sehen wir… highlights when you do it.
Wir sehen abends… highlights we (the subject), with the time less prominent.

Is the -s in Abends a genitive ending?

No. In Abends, the -s is not genitive; it is simply an adverb ending that often appears with times of day used in a habitual sense.

Common examples:

morgens – in the mornings
mittags – at midday(s)
nachmittags – in the afternoons
abends – in the evenings
nachts – at night(s)

These are adverbs, not genitives. So Abends in your sentence is an adverb meaning “in the evenings”, not a genitive form of der Abend.

Why is Fernsehen capitalized here, and what is the difference between Fernsehen, fernsehen, and der Fernseher?

In your sentence, Fernsehen is capitalized because it is a noun.

Key differences:

das Fernsehen (noun, capitalized)
- Meaning: television as a medium/institution, or just TV in a general sense.
- Example:
  - Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.
    = We sometimes watch TV together in the evenings.
fernsehen (verb, not capitalized; separable verb)
- Meaning: to watch TV.
- Conjugation example: wir sehen fern (we watch TV).
der Fernseher (noun)
- Meaning: the TV set, the physical device.
- Example: Der Fernseher steht im Wohnzimmer. = The TV (set) is in the living room.

So in your sentence, Fernsehen is the thing you watch (like TV as a medium), functioning as a noun object.

Why is there no article before Fernsehen? Why not das Fernsehen?

In this sentence, Fernsehen is used like a mass noun or an uncountable activity, similar to English TV in to watch TV (not to watch the TV).

German often drops the article with such general activities:

Wir trinken Kaffee. – We drink coffee.
Ich höre Musik. – I listen to music.
Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen Fernsehen. – We watch TV (in general).

You do use das Fernsehen when you mean the institution/medium more explicitly:

Das Fernsehen ist heute langweilig. – Television is boring today.
Im Fernsehen – on TV (in the medium of TV)

In your sentence, omitting the article is the natural, everyday choice.

Is Fernsehen the direct object here, and which case is it?

Yes, Fernsehen is the direct object of the verb sehen.

The verb sehen takes an accusative object.
So Fernsehen here is in the accusative.

You can see this more clearly with a word that changes form:

Wir sehen den Film. – den Film = accusative masculine singular.
Wir sehen Fernsehen. – Fernsehen is neuter and has the same form in nominative and accusative, but its function is still accusative object.

Why do manchmal and zusammen stand between wir and Fernsehen? Can I move them?

German allows some flexibility in the middle field (between the conjugated verb and the sentence-final part). manchmal and zusammen are both adverbs:

manchmal – frequency: sometimes
zusammen – manner: together

In your sentence:

Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.
Order: Time – Verb – Subject – Frequency – Manner – Object

You can move them around a bit, for example:

Abends sehen wir zusammen manchmal Fernsehen. (possible, but less usual)
Wir sehen abends manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.
Manchmal sehen wir abends zusammen Fernsehen.

The main rules to respect:

The conjugated verb stays in second position.
Adverbs like manchmal and zusammen usually appear in the middle field, not at the very end, unless you want a special emphasis.

Your original order is very natural.

Is there a rule for the order of time, manner, and place in this sentence?

Yes, there is a commonly taught pattern for adverbials in German: Time – Manner – Place (often remembered as TeMoLo, or Te-Ka-Mo-Lo including cause).

In your sentence:

Abends → time
manchmal → frequency (also often grouped with time/frequency adverbs)
zusammen → manner
(no place expression here)

One natural structure is:

Time / frequency: Abends, manchmal
Manner: zusammen
Place (if there were one): im Wohnzimmer

For example:

Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen im Wohnzimmer Fernsehen.

So your sentence respects the general tendency: Time/Frequency → Manner → (Place), all in the middle or near the front.

What is the difference between Fernsehen sehen, fernsehen, and Fernsehen schauen?

All are connected to watching TV, but their forms differ:

Fernsehen sehen
- Literally to see television.
- Structurally: verb sehen
  - noun Fernsehen.
- Your sentence uses this pattern:
  Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.
fernsehen
- A separable verb meaning to watch TV.
- Conjugation:
  - ich sehe fern
  - wir sehen fern
- Example similar in meaning to yours:
  Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen fern.
Fernsehen schauen / Fernsehen gucken
- Colloquial alternatives:
  - schauen is common in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland.
  - gucken is common in many colloquial varieties.
- Example:
  Abends schauen wir manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.

All three patterns are understandable. Many speakers would most naturally say either:

Wir sehen abends manchmal zusammen fern.
Wir schauen abends manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.

Could I also say Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen fern? Is that more common?

Yes, Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen fern is fully correct and quite natural.

Here fernsehen is used as a separable verb:
- sehen (conjugated) in second position,
- fern (separable prefix) at the end of the clause.

Many speakers would find Wir sehen abends manchmal zusammen fern a very typical, everyday way to say We sometimes watch TV together in the evenings.

So you have two good options with almost the same meaning:

Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.
Abends sehen wir manchmal zusammen fern.

The second one, with fernsehen, is probably a bit more common in spoken German.

Do we really need zusammen, since wir already means we?

wir only tells you who is involved; zusammen tells you how they act: together, jointly.

Without zusammen, the sentence could be understood as:

We (as a group) watch TV in the evenings, but not necessarily with each other at the same time.

With zusammen, you clearly say:

You are physically or socially together, doing the activity as a group.

So:

Wir sehen abends manchmal Fernsehen.
= We sometimes watch TV in the evenings. (each person may do it separately)
Wir sehen abends manchmal zusammen Fernsehen.
= We sometimes watch TV together in the evenings.

In practice, zusammen is useful to make the togetherness explicit.

How would I make this sentence negative, for example: We don’t watch TV together in the evenings?

Two natural negative versions are:

Using nicht to negate the action as a whole:
- Abends sehen wir nicht zusammen fern.
  = In the evenings, we do not watch TV together.
Using kein Fernsehen to negate the object:
- Abends sehen wir zusammen kein Fernsehen.
  = In the evenings, we watch no TV together.

A very typical version with a similar structure to your original would be:

Wir sehen abends nicht zusammen fern.

Placement hints:

nicht usually comes before the part it negates or before the final verb part:
- Wir sehen abends nicht zusammen fern. (negates “watch together (TV)”)
kein replaces an indefinite article and directly negates the noun:
- Wir sehen abends zusammen kein Fernsehen. (we watch no TV together)