Learn Hardcore German: Irgendwann möchte ich nach Kanada reisen. - Someday I would like to travel to Canada.

irgendwann means at some (unspecified) time, usually understood as in the future unless context suggests the past. It is vague: you do not know when.

Comparisons:

irgendwann
- at some point, someday
- very vague time, often future
- Example: Irgendwann möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
  I would like to travel to Canada someday.
manchmal
- sometimes, occasionally
- describes something that happens repeatedly from time to time
- Example: Manchmal reise ich nach Berlin.
  I sometimes travel to Berlin.
eines Tages
- one day, someday
- usually clearly future and has a slightly storytelling or dramatic tone
- Example: Eines Tages werde ich nach Kanada reisen.
  One day I will travel to Canada.

So irgendwann = vague single point in time (someday), manchmal = repeated occasions (sometimes), eines Tages = someday in the future, a bit more narrative or emphatic than irgendwann.

Why is the word order Irgendwann möchte ich nach Kanada reisen and not something else?

German main clauses follow the verb-second rule:

Exactly one element in position 1 (here: Irgendwann).
The finite verb in position 2 (here: möchte).
Everything else (subject, objects, adverbs, non-finite verbs) comes after that.
Any infinitive or participle goes to the end of the clause (here: reisen).

So in:

Irgendwann – first element (a time adverb)
möchte – finite verb, must be second
ich – subject
nach Kanada – prepositional phrase
reisen – infinitive at the end

This satisfies both the verb-second rule (möchte in second position) and the rule that the infinitive (reisen) goes to the end when used with a modal verb.

Could you also say Ich möchte irgendwann nach Kanada reisen? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, that is fully correct:

Ich möchte irgendwann nach Kanada reisen.

The difference is mainly emphasis:

Irgendwann möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
Emphasises the time idea first: Someday, I would like to travel to Canada.
Ich möchte irgendwann nach Kanada reisen.
Starts with I would like… and adds irgendwann in the middle. The desire is foregrounded a bit more; the time is just an extra detail.

In everyday speech, both sentences are extremely close in meaning. The fronted Irgendwann just sounds a little more focused on the someday aspect.

Why do we say nach Kanada and not zu Kanada or in Kanada?

For destinations, German has fairly strict patterns:

nach is used for:
- countries and cities without an article
  - nach Kanada, nach Deutschland, nach Berlin
- some fixed expressions: nach Hause (home)
zu is used when going to a person or institution:
- zu meiner Freundin (to my girlfriend)
- zum Arzt (to the doctor)
- zur Schule (to school, as an institution)
in is used for:
- going into a place or inside something
  - in die Stadt fahren (go into town)
  - ins Kino gehen (go to the cinema)
- countries that take an article
  - in die Schweiz reisen, in die USA reisen

In your sentence you are travelling to the country Canada as a destination, without focusing on being inside it. That fits the nach + country name pattern:

nach Kanada reisen = travel to Canada (as a destination)

Why is there no article before Kanada?

Most country names in German do not take an article in normal use:

Kanada, Deutschland, Frankreich, Japan, Brasilien
→ normally used without an article

So you say:

nach Kanada, in Deutschland, aus Brasilien

Some countries, however, do have an article:

die Schweiz, die Türkei, die USA, der Irak, der Iran

With those, you include the article and the preposition affects the case:

in die Schweiz reisen
aus der Türkei kommen
in die USA fliegen

Because Kanada is in the no-article group, the correct phrase is simply:

nach Kanada (no article)

What tense is möchte, and how can it talk about the future?

möchte is the Konjunktiv II (subjunctive) form of mögen, but in modern German it is mainly used as a polite or softened form of wollen (to want).

Grammatically, its form looks like a present tense, but it expresses a wish or desire, often relating to the future:

Ich möchte nach Kanada reisen.
I would like to travel to Canada. (future wish)

German does not need a special future tense here. The present plus a time expression (here irgendwann) often covers the future:

Morgen fahre ich nach Berlin.
I am going to Berlin tomorrow.
Irgendwann möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
Someday I would like to travel to Canada.

So möchte is not a pure future tense form, but the combination of möchte (wish) + irgendwann (someday) clearly points to the future.

What is the difference between möchte and will in this sentence?

Both relate to wanting, but the tone is different:

möchte
- would like to
- softer, more polite, less forceful
- expresses a wish or desire, not necessarily a firm decision
will
- wants to
- stronger, more direct, can sound determined or even stubborn
- often a clear intention or decision

Compare:

Irgendwann möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
Someday I would like to travel to Canada.
→ A dream or wish, not very concrete.
Irgendwann will ich nach Kanada reisen.
Someday I want to travel to Canada.
→ Sounds more like a firm goal you intend to reach at some point.

Both are grammatically correct, but möchte fits especially well with the vague irgendwann, because the whole sentence then sounds like a general life wish.

Can I say Irgendwann werde ich nach Kanada reisen instead? How is that different?

Yes, you can say:

Irgendwann werde ich nach Kanada reisen.

Differences:

Irgendwann möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
Focus on a wish or desire. It is not certain it will happen; you are expressing what you would like.
Irgendwann werde ich nach Kanada reisen.
Sounds more like a prediction or firm plan. You assume or decide that this will happen in the future.

So:

möchte → desire
werde … reisen → future event (plan or prediction)

You can even combine the ideas:

Irgendwann werde ich nach Kanada reisen, das ist mein Traum.
Someday I will travel to Canada, that is my dream.

What part of speech is irgendwann, and where can it go in the sentence?

irgendwann is an adverb of time.

Typical positions:

First position (for emphasis on time):
- Irgendwann möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
Middle of the sentence (neutral placement):
- Ich möchte irgendwann nach Kanada reisen.
At the end, after a pause (more spoken, additional remark):
- Ich möchte nach Kanada reisen, irgendwann.

All these are possible. The main rules:

In a main clause, the finite verb must stay in second position. So if irgendwann is first, möchte must still be second.
Adverbs like irgendwann cannot go between the modal verb and the infinitive in a way that breaks the final verb cluster unnaturally, so something like
*Ich möchte reisen irgendwann nach Kanada
sounds wrong or at least very odd.

Why does reisen go to the end of the sentence?

In German, when you have:

a finite verb (here: the modal möchte)
plus an infinitive (here: reisen)

the infinitive normally goes to the end of the clause.

This creates the so-called Satzklammer (sentence bracket):

möchte … reisen

Everything else is placed between these two parts:

Irgendwann – finite verb – subject – other information – infinitive:
Irgendwann – möchte – ich – nach Kanada – reisen.

You see the same pattern with other modal or auxiliary verbs:

Morgen will ich nach Berlin fahren.
Nächstes Jahr muss ich nach Deutschland umziehen.

Is there any case ending in this sentence, and what does nach do grammatically?

There is very little visible case marking here:

ich is the subject in nominative case.
reisen is intransitive (it does not take a direct object), so there is no accusative object.
nach Kanada is a prepositional phrase indicating direction.

The preposition nach:

When it is used with countries/cities without articles, you just get nach + name, with no visible case ending:
- nach Kanada, nach Berlin, nach Deutschland
When nach is used with a noun that has an article (less common in this directional sense), it would govern the dative case, but with Kanada there is no article and no ending to show the case.

So grammatically, nach marks a directional complement, similar to English to, but the case is not visible in this particular example.

How would I say that I want to travel in Canada (within the country), not to Canada?

Then you focus on being inside the country, so you use in or durch:

Simple in (be in the country and travel there):
- Irgendwann möchte ich in Kanada reisen.
  Someday I would like to travel in Canada.
This is understandable, but often German speakers make it more specific, for example:
- Irgendwann möchte ich in Kanada herumreisen.
  Someday I would like to travel around in Canada.
durch Kanada reisen = travel through/around Canada:
- Irgendwann möchte ich durch Kanada reisen.
  Someday I would like to travel across/around Canada.

Compare:

nach Kanada reisen – to Canada, as your destination
durch Kanada reisen – through Canada, moving within the country

How do you pronounce ich and möchte correctly?

Approximate pronunciation (IPA):

ich → [ɪç]
- i like English i in bit
- ch is a soft sound [ç], made by letting air pass over the middle of your tongue near the hard palate.
  A tip: say something like English h while your tongue is close to the roof of your mouth; it should sound more like a hiss than a throaty sound.
möchte → [ˈmœçtə]
- ö [œ] is a front rounded vowel, similar to French eu in peur.
  Try saying English e in bet while rounding your lips.
- ch again is the same soft [ç] as in ich.
- Final -e is a weak schwa [ə], like the a in sofa.

Syllable stress:

Irgendwann → [ˈɪʁɡntˌvan] with main stress on the first syllable: IR-gend-wann
möchte → [ˈmœçtə], stress on the first syllable: MÖCH-te

Is irgendwann formal, informal, or neutral? Are there more colloquial alternatives?

irgendwann is neutral and works well in both spoken and written German, in informal and relatively formal contexts.

Some alternatives:

eines Tages – a bit more literary or storytelling
mal – very colloquial short form in this kind of sentence:
- Ich möchte mal nach Kanada reisen.
  Roughly: I would like to travel to Canada someday.

mal is more casual and very common in speech. irgendwann sounds slightly more explicit that the time is unknown, whereas mal is more like a softener: at some point / at some time or other.

How could I make the sentence more specific, like saying someday soon or someday in the summer?

You just replace or expand the time expression:

Bald möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
I would like to travel to Canada soon.
Irgendwann im Sommer möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
Someday in the summer I would like to travel to Canada.
Nächstes Jahr im Sommer möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
Next year in the summer I would like to travel to Canada.
Irgendwann in den nächsten Jahren möchte ich nach Kanada reisen.
Someday in the next few years I would like to travel to Canada.

The verb-second rule still applies: whatever you put at the beginning (Bald, Irgendwann im Sommer, Nächstes Jahr) is position 1, and möchte must stay in position 2.

Why is Irgendwann capitalized here; does that mean it is a noun?

No. Irgendwann is an adverb, not a noun.

It is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence. In German:

The first word of a sentence is always capitalized.
All nouns are capitalized, wherever they appear.
Most other words (verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns) are not capitalized unless they start a sentence or are part of a proper name.

So you get:

Irgendwann möchte ich nach Kanada reisen. (start of sentence → capital letter)
Ich möchte irgendwann nach Kanada reisen. (in the middle → lowercase irgendwann)

That shows clearly that irgendwann itself is not a noun.