Learn Hardcore German: In meiner Fantasie läuft jedes Referat perfekt, aber in der Realität zittert manchmal noch meine Stimme. - In my imagination every presentation goes perfectly, but in reality my voice still sometimes trembles.

In meiner Fantasie = in my imagination (static location, dative)
If it were movement: in meine Fantasie (into my imagination, accusative) – different meaning.

Why do we say in der Realität but in meiner Fantasie? Why der vs. meiner?

Both Fantasie and Realität are feminine nouns, so in the dative they follow the same pattern, but with different determiners:

With the definite article:
- nominative: die Realität
- dative: der Realität
With a possessive determiner (like “my”):
- nominative: meine Fantasie
- dative: meiner Fantasie

So:

In der Realität → in (the) reality (feminine dative: der)
In meiner Fantasie → in my imagination (feminine dative: meiner)

der and meiner are just two different determiners in the same case (dative singular feminine).

Why is it jedes Referat and not jeder Referat or jede Referat?

Because Referat is neuter in German: das Referat.

The determiner jed- (“every / each”) must agree with the noun in:

gender,
number,
case.

Here we have:

singular
neuter
nominative (subject of the verb läuft)

The correct form is:

jedes Referat (neuter nominative singular)

Compare:

jeder Mann (masculine)
jede Frau (feminine)
jedes Kind / jedes Referat (neuter)

Why is the verb läuft used with Referat? Doesn’t laufen mean “to run”?

Literally, laufen = “to run,” but in German (as in English) it is also used figuratively for “go, proceed, turn out”.

Similar to English:

How did the meeting *go?*
German: Wie ist das Meeting gelaufen?

So:

In meiner Fantasie läuft jedes Referat perfekt
≈ In my imagination, every presentation goes perfectly.

Here läuft doesn’t mean the presentation is physically running; it means the way it goes / proceeds is perfect.

Could you also say In meiner Fantasie geht jedes Referat perfekt? Is that wrong?

You can say geht, and it’s grammatically fine:

In meiner Fantasie geht jedes Referat perfekt.

Nuance:

geht = neutral “goes”
läuft is a very typical, idiomatic choice when talking about how events, processes, or performances go:
- Wie läuft die Arbeit? – How’s the work going?
- Die Party lief super. – The party went great.

So läuft sounds a bit more natural and idiomatic in this context, but geht is not incorrect.

Why is the word order zittert manchmal noch meine Stimme and not meine Stimme zittert manchmal noch?

Both orders are grammatically correct:

Meine Stimme zittert manchmal noch.
Zittert manchmal noch meine Stimme. (unusual on its own, but fine after aber here)

In the full sentence, we have:

..., aber in der Realität zittert manchmal noch meine Stimme.

Structure of the second clause:

aber (coordinating conjunction; doesn’t count as a position)
Position 1: in der Realität
Position 2 (finite verb): zittert
Then adverbs and other elements: manchmal noch meine Stimme

German main-clause rule: the conjugated verb must be in second position. The subject doesn’t have to be in first position; it can come after adverbs.

Adverb order is common:
Verb – time/frequency adverb – other adverbs – subject is quite normal, especially in spoken German.

There is a slight emphasis difference:

Meine Stimme zittert manchmal noch → neutral order, focus more on “my voice.”
... zittert manchmal noch meine Stimme → more focus on the action “still sometimes trembles/shakes.”

What does noch add in manchmal noch? Isn’t manchmal (“sometimes”) enough?

manchmal = sometimes
noch = still, yet, (up) to now

Together, manchmal noch suggests:

It used to be worse or more frequent, and
It still happens occasionally, even though things may have improved.

So:

manchmal → neutral “sometimes”
manchmal noch → “still sometimes,” implying progress, but not 100% solved.

Compare:

Meine Stimme zittert manchmal. – My voice sometimes shakes.
Meine Stimme zittert manchmal noch. – My voice still sometimes shakes (less than before, but not gone).

Why is perfekt at the very end of the first clause?

Because in German, predicative adjectives (adjectives used with verbs like “be, become, seem, go”) typically go towards the end of the clause.

Clause:
In meiner Fantasie läuft jedes Referat perfekt

Order:

In meiner Fantasie – prepositional phrase in the first position
läuft – conjugated verb (must be in second position)
jedes Referat – subject
perfekt – predicative adjective (how it “runs” / “goes”)

You can’t move perfekt before the verb in a normal main clause:

❌ In meiner Fantasie perfekt läuft jedes Referat. (wrong in standard word order)

So the most natural order is: läuft ... perfekt.

Why is meine Stimme the subject of zittert instead of ich? Could you say ich zittere?

Yes, you could say:

..., aber in der Realität zittere ich manchmal noch.

Both are grammatical, but the focus changes:

meine Stimme zittert → emphasizes the voice as the thing that shakes.
ich zittere → emphasizes the person shaking (their whole body, hands, etc.).

In the original, the speaker is narrowing the problem down to just their voice, not their entire body. That’s why meine Stimme is used as the subject.

Grammatically, zittern works fine with:

persons: Ich zittere vor Kälte.
body parts: Meine Hände zittern. / Meine Stimme zittert.

Why is there a comma before aber?

Because aber is a coordinating conjunction that is joining two independent main clauses:

In meiner Fantasie läuft jedes Referat perfekt,
aber in der Realität zittert manchmal noch meine Stimme.

In German, when two full main clauses are joined by aber, you must put a comma before it.

Other coordinating conjunctions that behave the same way:

und, oder, denn, sondern → usually also preceded by a comma if they join full clauses.