Abends liest die Dozentin im Garten.

In the evening the lecturer reads in the garden.

Breakdown of Abends liest die Dozentin im Garten.

• lesen: to read
• der Garten: the garden
• im: in the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
• abends: in the evening

Questions & Answers about Abends liest die Dozentin im Garten.

Why does the verb come before the subject: „Abends liest die Dozentin…“ instead of „Abends die Dozentin liest…“?

German main clauses normally follow the “verb‑second” rule (V2): the finite verb is always in second position in the sentence, no matter what comes first.

• Element 1: Abends (a time adverb)
• Element 2: liest (the finite verb)
• Then the rest: die Dozentin im Garten

When you put something other than the subject in first position (here: Abends), the subject often moves after the verb. This is called inversion.

So the two sentences are both possible, but have different structures:

• Die Dozentin liest abends im Garten. – Subject first, still V2.
• Abends liest die Dozentin im Garten. – Time first, still V2 via inversion.

„Abends die Dozentin liest…“ is ungrammatical in standard German because the verb is no longer in second position.

What exactly is „Abends“? Is it a noun, and why is it not capitalized?

Abends here is a temporal adverb meaning “in the evenings / at night (as a habit)”.

• It comes from the noun der Abend (evening), but in this form it functions as an adverb.
• Adverbs are not capitalized in German, so it is abends, not Abends, in standard spelling.

Your sentence would normally be written:

abends liest die Dozentin im Garten.

It is capitalized only if it starts the sentence (as any first word in a sentence is), not because it is a noun.