Breakdown of Im neuen Kurs finde ich schnell Anschluss, weil viele Menschen ähnliche Ziele haben.
Questions & Answers about Im neuen Kurs finde ich schnell Anschluss, weil viele Menschen ähnliche Ziele haben.
Im is the contracted form of in dem (literally: in the).
- in = in
- dem = the (dative, masculine or neuter)
Kurs is masculine, and after in (with the meaning “in/at a place”) German uses the dative case. So:
- in dem neuen Kurs → im neuen Kurs
You could write in dem neuen Kurs, but in normal speech and writing people almost always use the contraction im.
Because Kurs is masculine and in the dative singular after in dem/im, the adjective takes the ending -en.
Structure:
- Preposition: in (with location → dative)
- Article: dem (dative masculine) → contracted to im
- Noun: Kurs (masculine)
- Adjective: neu-
With a definite article in the dative masculine, the adjective ending is -en:
- in dem neuen Kurs → im neuen Kurs
Im neuer Kurs would be incorrect.
In a main clause, German wants the conjugated verb in 2nd position. The first position can be almost anything: subject, time phrase, place phrase, etc.
Here:
- Im neuen Kurs = first element
- finde = verb in 2nd position
- ich = subject, follows the verb
So the word order is valid and quite natural:
- Im neuen Kurs finde ich schnell Anschluss. (emphasis on in the new course)
- Ich finde im neuen Kurs schnell Anschluss. (more neutral, starting with I)
Both are correct; the choice mainly affects emphasis and style, not grammar.
Anschluss finden is an idiomatic expression. Literally it’s “to find connection,” but the natural English meaning here is:
- to make friends quickly
- to fit in quickly
- to quickly become part of the group / build social ties
You don’t normally translate it as to find a connection in this context. It’s specifically about integrating socially or making contacts in a new group, class, workplace, city, etc.
Examples:
- Als ich umgezogen bin, habe ich in der neuen Stadt schnell Anschluss gefunden.
= When I moved, I quickly made social contacts / I fit in quickly in the new city.
So in this sentence, schnell Anschluss finden means the speaker quickly feels socially integrated in the new course.
schnell is an adverb describing how you find Anschluss. German often places such adverbs after the conjugated verb and before the object, so:
- Ich finde schnell Anschluss.
Other positions are also possible, with slight changes in emphasis:
Ich finde Anschluss schnell.
(grammatically okay; can sound a bit more emphatic on quickly, but is less common in this context)Schnell finde ich Anschluss.
(stylistic, emphasizing quickly, often in written/literary style)
The position in the original sentence (finde ich schnell Anschluss) is the most neutral and natural.
weil is a subordinating conjunction (like because). In German, these conjunctions send the conjugated verb to the end of the clause.
Pattern with weil:
- …, weil
- [subject] + [other elements] + [conjugated verb at the end].
In the sentence:
- weil viele Menschen ähnliche Ziele haben.
You cannot say:
- ✗ …, weil viele Menschen haben ähnliche Ziele.
That would be wrong word order for a subordinate clause. The comma before weil is also mandatory.
The subject of the subordinate clause is viele Menschen:
- Menschen = people (plural)
- viele = many
So the subject is third person plural. The verb haben must therefore also be plural:
- ich habe
- du hast
- er/sie/es hat
- wir haben
- ihr habt
- sie/Sie haben
Since viele Menschen = sie (they), you use haben.
In the clause weil viele Menschen ähnliche Ziele haben, the subject is whoever has the goals. The subject of haben is:
- viele Menschen → many people
Subjects in German are in the nominative case. The thing that is had (the object) is in the accusative:
- Subject (nominative): viele Menschen
- Object (accusative): ähnliche Ziele
So viele Menschen must be nominative plural.
Ziele is plural and acts as the direct object of haben, so it’s accusative plural. There is no article in front of it (no der/die/das, kein/keine, etc.).
In this situation (plural, no article), adjectives take the strong declension. For all plural cases in the strong declension, the ending is -e:
- Nominative plural (no article): ähnliche Ziele sind wichtig.
- Accusative plural (no article): Sie haben ähnliche Ziele.
So ähnliche Ziele is the correct form.
Forms like ähnlichen Ziele would be wrong in this context.
Both talk about how the goals relate, but the nuance is different:
ähnliche Ziele = similar goals
→ The goals are not identical, but they are alike or close in nature.gleiche Ziele = the same goals
→ The goals are identical (or treated as if they are).
In this sentence:
- viele Menschen ähnliche Ziele haben
suggests that everyone’s goals are along the same lines (e.g. all want to improve their German), but not necessarily completely identical.
Yes, Ich finde schnell Freunde is perfectly grammatical and understandable:
- Im neuen Kurs finde ich schnell Freunde.
= I quickly make friends in the new course.
The nuance:
- Anschluss finden: more general; fitting into a group, building social connections, feeling integrated. It doesn’t necessarily mean close friends, just that you “connect” socially.
- Freunde finden: more specific; actually forming friendships.
So the original sentence focuses on integrating into the social environment of the course in a broad sense, not just on finding close friends.