Breakdown of Am Wochenende wandern wir zu einem Bergsee und übernachten in einer kleinen Hütte unterhalb des Gipfels.
Questions & Answers about Am Wochenende wandern wir zu einem Bergsee und übernachten in einer kleinen Hütte unterhalb des Gipfels.
Am is the usual way to say “on the weekend” in German.
- am = an + dem (preposition an
- dative article dem)
- Wochenende is neuter, so dative singular is dem Wochenende → am Wochenende.
Use am with:
- days and parts of days: am Montag, am Abend, am Wochenende
Use im (in dem) with: - months, seasons, longer periods: im Januar, im Sommer, im Jahr 2024
Im Wochenende is simply not idiomatic German in this sense.
German main clauses follow the verb-second rule (V2):
- One element comes first (the Vorfeld)
- Then the conjugated verb
- Then the subject (if it wasn’t first) and the rest
So both are correct, just different emphasis:
Wir wandern am Wochenende zu einem Bergsee …
→ neutral emphasis on wir (we).Am Wochenende wandern wir zu einem Bergsee …
→ emphasis on when; “As for the weekend, that’s when we hike…”
In the given sentence, Am Wochenende is moved to the first position for emphasis, so the verb wandern must come next, and wir follows it.
Because of the same verb-second rule:
- First position: Am Wochenende (time phrase)
- Second position: wandern (conjugated verb)
- Then: wir (subject)
If you start the sentence with Wir, then the verb can come right after it: Wir wandern am Wochenende …. But once Am Wochenende is at the front, the verb must move to second place: Am Wochenende wandern wir ….
wandern = to hike / to go for a (longer) walk, usually in nature (mountains, forests, countryside).
Example: Wir wandern in den Alpen. – We’re hiking in the Alps.gehen = to go / to walk (more general).
Example: Wir gehen zur Schule. – We go / walk to school.
You may also hear wandern gehen (to go hiking), but wandern alone already means “to hike”.
The preposition zu in the sense of “to (a place)” always takes the dative case.
- Bergsee is masculine:
nominative: ein Bergsee
accusative: einen Bergsee
dative: einem Bergsee
So after zu, you must use dative: zu einem Bergsee = “to a mountain lake”.
Bergsee is a compound noun:
- der Berg = mountain
- der See = lake
German very often combines nouns into one long noun. The last part determines:
- the gender (here: der See → masculine)
- the basic meaning (here: a kind of lake)
So:
- der See (lake) → der Bergsee (mountain lake)
- Both nouns are written together, and the compound is capitalized because it’s a noun.
Both are correct:
- … wandern wir zu einem Bergsee und übernachten in einer kleinen Hütte …
- … wandern wir zu einem Bergsee und wir übernachten in einer kleinen Hütte …
In German, when two clauses share the same subject and are connected by und, you can omit the repeated subject in the second clause if it is clear:
- Wir wandern … und (wir) übernachten …
The verb übernachten is already correctly conjugated for wir (and for regular verbs, the wir-form looks like the infinitive), so it may look like an infinitive, but grammatically it’s finite: wir übernachten.
The preposition in can take dative or accusative:
- Accusative → movement into something (direction):
Wir gehen in eine Hütte. – We go into a hut. - Dative → location in something (no movement, just where something is):
Wir übernachten in einer Hütte. – We spend the night in a hut.
In the sentence, the focus is on where we stay overnight (location), not on the movement into the hut, so German normally uses dative:
in einer kleinen Hütte (feminine dative singular).
Let’s break it down:
- Hütte is feminine: die Hütte
- After in with location we need dative → der Hütte (definite) / einer Hütte (indefinite)
- With einer in dative, the adjective takes -en: einer kleinen Hütte
Pattern in dative singular with an indefinite article:
- masculine: einem kleinen Mann
- neuter: einem kleinen Kind
- feminine: einer kleinen Hütte
So einer kleinen Hütte is the correct combination of:
- in
- dative
- feminine noun
- adjective after an article in dative → -en ending.
The preposition unterhalb (“below”, “beneath”) always takes the genitive case.
- der Gipfel (masculine singular, nominative)
- Genitive singular (masculine): des Gipfels
So you must say:
- unterhalb des Gipfels – below the summit
Using dem would be dative; that doesn’t fit with unterhalb, which governs the genitive.
Both can describe a position lower than the summit, but there is a nuance:
unter dem Gipfel
→ more concrete, “under the summit”, “below the summit”, often fairly close; uses unter- dative.
unterhalb des Gipfels
→ a bit more formal/literary, “somewhere below the summit area”; often sounds slightly more descriptive, uses unterhalb- genitive.
In casual speech, unter dem Gipfel is more common; unterhalb des Gipfels sounds a bit more written or descriptive.
German often uses the present tense for planned future events, especially when there is a clear time expression:
- Am Wochenende wandern wir …
= “We’re hiking at the weekend / this weekend.”
This is similar to English present continuous (“We’re going hiking on the weekend”) or a simple future with context.
You could also say:
- Am Wochenende werden wir zu einem Bergsee wandern … (with werden
- infinitive)
That is grammatically correct but less common in everyday speech when the time is already clear from am Wochenende.
In German, all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they appear in the sentence.
- das Wochenende
- der Bergsee
- die Hütte
- der Gipfel / des Gipfels
This is a basic spelling rule of German: every noun starts with a capital letter, including noun components inside compounds like Bergsee.