Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten.

Every child likes to play in the garden.

Breakdown of Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten.

• das Kind: the child
• spielen: to play
• der Garten: the garden
• gern: gladly
• im: in the; (masculine or neuter)
• jedes: every; (neuter, nominative)

Questions & Answers about Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten.

Why is it Jedes Kind and not Jeder Kind or Jede Kind?

In German, determiners like jeder / jede / jedes must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

• Kind has the article das → it is neuter.
• In the nominative singular:
  • masculine: jeder Mann
  • feminine: jede Frau
  • neuter: jedes Kind

So you need jedes to match the neuter noun Kind in the nominative case.
Jeder Kind or Jede Kind would be grammatically wrong because the gender doesn’t match.

What case is Jedes Kind in, and why?

Jedes Kind is in the nominative case.

Reason: it is the subject of the sentence — it’s the thing doing the action (plays).
In German, the subject is always in the nominative case. So:

• Wer / was spielt gern im Garten? – Jedes Kind.
  (Who/what likes to play in the garden? – Every child.)

Because it answers this “who/what does the action?” question, it must be nominative.

Why is Kind neuter (das Kind) and not masculine or feminine?

Grammatical gender in German is largely arbitrary and must be learned with each noun. There are some patterns, though:

• Many words for young humans or animals are neuter:
  • das Kind (child)
  • das Baby
  • das Mädchen
  • das Kätzchen

So Kind is grammatically neuter, even though it refers to a person who has a real-world gender. You just have to memorize das Kind as a vocabulary item: word + article together.

What exactly does gern mean here, and why not just use mögen?

Literally, gern means something like “gladly”.
But in modern German, when you combine gern with a verb, it usually means:

• to like doing something / to enjoy doing something

So:

• Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten.
  ≈ “Every child likes to play in the garden.” / “Every child enjoys playing in the garden.”

About mögen:

• mögen is a separate verb meaning to like.
• You usually use mögen with nouns:
  • Ich mag Schokolade. – I like chocolate.
• With activities, German often prefers gern + verb:
  • Ich spiele gern Fußball. (more natural than Ich mag Fußball spielen in many contexts)

You can say Ich mag im Garten spielen, but Ich spiele gern im Garten is more idiomatic and straightforward for “I like playing in the garden.”

What’s the difference between gern and gerne?

Practically: there is no difference. Both mean the same and are interchangeable in most contexts.

• Ich spiele gern Fußball.
• Ich spiele gerne Fußball.

Both are correct and natural.

Small nuances (not strict rules):

• Some people feel gerne is a bit softer or slightly more polite, especially in phrases like:
  • Ja, gerne. – “Yes, gladly / with pleasure.”
• gern is just the shorter version and perhaps a bit more common in writing.

For learning purposes, you can treat gern and gerne as synonyms.

Why is the word order spielt gern and not gern spielt? Can I move gern?

The standard word order here is:

• Jedes Kind (subject)
• spielt (finite verb – must be in position 2)
• gern (adverb of manner: “with pleasure”)
• im Garten (place)

So: Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten.

About moving gern:

1. Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten.
   – Neutral, very natural.

2. Jedes Kind spielt im Garten gern.
   – Also correct. Slightly more emphasis that the playing in the garden is what they enjoy.

3. Gern spielt jedes Kind im Garten.
   – Correct but more stylized/poetic or used for emphasis on gern.

What you cannot do is break the verb-second rule, e.g.:

• ✗ Jedes Kind gern spielt im Garten. (wrong – finite verb is not in 2nd position)

So yes, you can move gern somewhat, but the conjugated verb must stay in second position in main clauses.

What does im mean, and why not just say in dem Garten?

im is a contraction of in dem:

• in (preposition: “in”)
• dem (dative masculine/neuter singular of der, “the”)
• in dem → im

So:

• im Garten = in dem Garten = “in the garden”

Both forms are grammatically correct, but in everyday German you normally use the contraction im.
You would use in dem Garten mainly if you want to stress that you mean that specific garden, or in very formal / written style.

Why is it im Garten (dative) and not in den Garten (accusative)?

Because of how the preposition in works with cases:

in is a two-way preposition (Wechselpräposition).

• Dative → location / where something happens
• Accusative → direction / movement to a place

Compare:

• im Garten spielen (in dem Garten, dative)
  → The action takes place in the garden (location, no movement into it).

• in den Garten gehen (accusative)
  → Movement into the garden (direction).

Here we are talking about where the children play, not where they go, so we use dative:

• in
  • dem (dative masculine) Garten → im Garten.

Can I also say Alle Kinder spielen gern im Garten? What’s the difference from Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten?

Yes, you can say both, but the nuance is slightly different:

1. Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten.

   • Literally: “Every child likes to play in the garden.”
   • Focuses on each individual child. It sounds very general, like a universal statement.

2. Alle Kinder spielen gern im Garten.

   • Literally: “All children like to play in the garden.”
   • Focuses more on the group as a whole.

Grammatically:

• Jedes Kind → singular → spielt (3rd person singular)
• Alle Kinder → plural → spielen (3rd person plural)

Meaning-wise, they are very close, but jedes Kind has a stronger “each one, without exception” feel, and is more typical for general truths.

Why are Kind and Garten capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of where they appear in the sentence.

• Kind (child) – noun → capitalized
• Garten (garden) – noun → capitalized

Additionally:

• The first word of the sentence is always capitalized, so Jedes is capitalized as well.
• Words like spielt, gern, im are not nouns, so they are written with small letters (except at the beginning of a sentence).

So capitalization here is simply following the general rule: nouns = capital letters.

Why is it spielt and not spielen?

Because the verb must agree with the subject in person and number.

The infinitive is spielen (“to play”). The present tense conjugation is:

• ich spiele
• du spielst
• er / sie / es spielt
• wir spielen
• ihr spielt
• sie / Sie spielen

The subject Jedes Kind corresponds to es (3rd person singular, neuter):

• es spielt

Therefore you must use spielt, not spielen:

• Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten. ✔
• ✗ Jedes Kind spielen gern im Garten. (wrong form for a singular subject)

Could I also say Jedes Kind mag im Garten spielen? If yes, what’s the difference?

Yes, Jedes Kind mag im Garten spielen is grammatically correct and understandable.

Nuance:

• Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten.

  • Emphasis is on the enjoyment of the activity while doing it.
  • Sounds very natural and is the most typical way to express “likes to play” in German.

• Jedes Kind mag im Garten spielen.

  • Uses mag (“likes”) directly with the verb phrase im Garten spielen.
  • Also means they like that activity, but this structure is less common than gern + verb, especially in simple, general statements.

In everyday German, gern + verb is usually preferred to talk about liking activities, so Jedes Kind spielt gern im Garten is the more idiomatic sentence.