Learn Hardcore German: Irgendwann sitzen wir zusammen im Garten und trinken Tee. - Someday we will sit together in the garden and drink tea.

Here irgendwann (sometime / at some point) signals that we are talking about a non‑specific future moment, so sitzen wir … und trinken is understood as will be sitting … and will drink.

This works with many time expressions:

Morgen fahre ich nach Berlin.
→ I am going / I will go to Berlin tomorrow.
Nächstes Jahr kaufe ich ein Auto.
→ Next year I will buy a car.

Using the actual future with werden is possible, but not necessary in everyday speech when the time reference is already clear.

Can I say Irgendwann werden wir zusammen im Garten sitzen und Tee trinken instead? Is there a difference?

Yes, that version is grammatically correct.

Irgendwann sitzen wir zusammen im Garten und trinken Tee.

Very natural, neutral, everyday German.
The future meaning comes from irgendwann, so the present tense is enough.

Irgendwann werden wir zusammen im Garten sitzen und Tee trinken.

Sounds a bit more explicitly future and sometimes slightly more formal or emphatic, like making a promise or strong prediction.

In many everyday contexts, native speakers prefer the simple present with a time word, as in the original sentence.

Why is it Irgendwann sitzen wir … and not Irgendwann wir sitzen …?

German has the verb‑second rule in main clauses: the conjugated verb must be in second position.

Positions are counted by chunks, not by individual words. In this sentence:

Irgendwann = first position (a time adverbial)
sitzen = second position (the finite verb)
wir zusammen im Garten und trinken Tee = everything else follows

The subject wir therefore must come after the verb because irgendwann occupies the first position.

So:

✅ Irgendwann sitzen wir zusammen im Garten … (correct)
❌ Irgendwann wir sitzen zusammen im Garten … (verb is not in second position → wrong)

What kind of word is irgendwann, and how is it different from manchmal and einmal?

Irgendwann is an adverb of time meaning at some (unspecified) point in time. It does not say when, only that it will/has happened at some point.

Comparisons:

irgendwann
- at some point, sooner or later, sometime (unspecified)
- Irgendwann besuchen wir dich.
  → We will visit you at some point.
manchmal
- sometimes, occasionally, from time to time
- Repeated, not just once.
- Manchmal trinken wir Tee im Garten.
  → Sometimes we drink tea in the garden.
einmal
- once / one time
- Also used in the future sense some day / one day:
  - Ich möchte einmal nach Japan reisen.
    → I would like to travel to Japan one day.

So irgendwann focuses on an unspecified point, manchmal on repetition, and einmal on once or one day.

Why is it im Garten and not in den Garten?

This is about case with prepositions of location.

in can take:

Dative (location: where?)
Accusative (direction: where to?)

In the sentence, the meaning is where we are sitting (location, no movement), so you use dative:

in dem Garten → contracted to im Garten (dative, where?)

If you had movement into the garden, you would use accusative:

Wir gehen in den Garten.
→ We are going into the garden. (direction, where to?)

So im Garten = in the garden (staying there),
and in den Garten = into the garden (movement towards it).

What exactly does im mean here?

im is a contraction of:

in + dem

dem is the dative singular article for masculine and neuter nouns.

Since Garten is masculine and we need the dative (location), the full form is:

in dem Garten → shortened to im Garten

This kind of contraction is very common:

in dem → im
an dem → am
bei dem → beim
zu dem → zum
zu der → zur

Why is there no article before Tee?

Tee is often treated as a mass noun (like water, coffee, milk) when we talk about it in a general, non‑specific sense.

In that case German typically drops the article:

Wir trinken Tee.
→ We drink (some) tea / We are drinking tea. (tea in general)

You would use an article when specifying quantity or a particular tea:

Wir trinken einen Tee.
→ We are drinking a tea (one cup of tea).
Wir trinken den Tee.
→ We are drinking the tea (the specific tea already mentioned).
Wir trinken den grünen Tee.
→ We are drinking the green tea.

In the original sentence, it is about the activity in general (having tea together), so no article is natural.

Could I also say Irgendwann sitzen wir zusammen im Garten und wir trinken Tee? Why is wir omitted in the second part?

Yes, you can say:

Irgendwann sitzen wir zusammen im Garten, und wir trinken Tee.

That is grammatically correct. However, in German (as in English) it is very common to omit a repeated subject when two verbs share the same subject in a simple sentence:

Irgendwann sitzen wir zusammen im Garten und trinken Tee.

Here, sitzen and trinken share the subject wir, so you only say it once. This sounds more natural and less heavy.

If you do repeat wir, it can sound a bit more emphatic or separate the two actions slightly more, but usually there is no strong reason to do so in this simple sentence.

Why is zusammen placed between sitzen and im Garten? Could it go somewhere else?

zusammen is an adverb meaning together. Its position is relatively flexible, but in neutral word order adverbs like this usually appear after the verb but before the place/time information.

The original:

Irgendwann sitzen wir zusammen im Garten und trinken Tee.

Other acceptable positions:

Irgendwann sitzen wir im Garten zusammen und trinken Tee.
Wir sitzen irgendwann zusammen im Garten und trinken Tee.

All are understandable, but:

sitzen wir zusammen im Garten is the most neutral and natural ordering.
Moving zusammen can sometimes give a slight change of emphasis or sound stylistically less smooth, but it is not a big grammatical issue here.

Does sitzen here mean to be sitting or to sit down?

Here sitzen is a stative verb: it describes the state of being seated, not the action of sitting down.

So the sentence is about the situation:

we are (will be) sitting in the garden and drinking tea.

If you wanted to emphasize the action of sitting down, you would usually use:

sich hinsetzen (to sit down)

For example:

Wir setzen uns in den Garten und trinken Tee.
→ We sit down in the garden and drink tea.

The original sitzen wir … corresponds more to English we are sitting than to we sit down.

Can irgendwann also refer to the past, like at some point in the past?

Yes. irgendwann itself is neutral about past or future; the tense of the verb shows the time:

Irgendwann haben wir zusammen im Garten gesessen und Tee getrunken.
→ At some point (in the past) we sat in the garden together and drank tea.
Irgendwann sitzen wir zusammen im Garten und trinken Tee.
→ At some point (in the future / unspecified) we will sit in the garden together and drink tea.

So irgendwann = at some unspecified time, and the verb tense tells you whether that time is past, present, or future in context.

What gender is Garten, and how does it look in the different cases?

Garten is masculine. Its main forms:

Singular
- Nominative: der Garten
  - Der Garten ist schön.
- Accusative: den Garten
  - Ich mag den Garten.
- Dative: dem Garten
  - Wir sitzen im Garten. (in dem Garten)
- Genitive: des Gartens
  - Die Blumen des Gartens sind bunt.
Plural
- Nominative: die Gärten
- Accusative: die Gärten
- Dative: den Gärten
- Genitive: der Gärten

In the sentence im Garten, you see dative singular (in dem Garten → im Garten).