Learn Hardcore German: Im Kurs machen wir eine kurze Ausspracheübung mit einer Muttersprachlerin. - In the course we do a short pronunciation exercise with a female native speaker.

Im Kurs = in the course (location → dative → dem → im)
If it were movement, you might see accusative:
- Ich gehe in den Kurs. = I am going into the course.

So im Kurs is just the natural, shortened form of in dem Kurs, and it’s in the dative case because it describes where the activity happens.

Could I also say Wir machen im Kurs eine kurze Ausspracheübung …? Why does the sentence start with Im Kurs?

Yes, you can absolutely say:

Wir machen im Kurs eine kurze Ausspracheübung mit einer Muttersprachlerin.

German main clauses follow the verb-second rule (V2): the conjugated verb must be in second position in the sentence, but the first position is flexible. You can put different elements in first place to emphasize them.

Im Kurs machen wir …
- First: Im Kurs (time/place context)
- Second (must be): machen (verb)
- Then: wir, etc.
  → Emphasis: what we do in the course.
Wir machen im Kurs …
- First: Wir
- Second: machen
  → Emphasis: we do this.

Both are correct; the difference is mainly focus/emphasis, not grammar correctness.

Why is it machen and not tun or haben? In English I would say “we do a short pronunciation exercise”.

In German, machen is the usual verb for “to do” when you talk about planned activities, tasks, and exercises.

eine Übung machen = to do an exercise
Hausaufgaben machen = to do homework
einen Test machen = to do/take a test

tun is much less common and sounds either:

very colloquial (in some regions/dialects), or
a bit literary or emphatic (e.g. Was tust du da?).

You normally don’t say:

✗ Wir tun eine kurze Ausspracheübung. (sounds wrong/unnatural)
✗ Wir haben eine kurze Ausspracheübung. (this would mean more like “We have a short pronunciation exercise (as part of the course)” rather than “we are doing it now”.)

So machen is the natural, idiomatic choice here.

What’s going on grammatically in eine kurze Ausspracheübung? Why eine, and why kurze with -e?

Breakdown:

Übung (exercise) is feminine: die Übung.
It’s the direct object of machen:
- What are we doing? → a short pronunciation exercise.
  → Direct object = accusative case.
Feminine, accusative singular with an indefinite article is eine.
- Nominative fem. sg.: eine Übung
- Accusative fem. sg.: eine Übung (same form)

The adjective kurz (“short”) must agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun and article:

Pattern: eine
- adjective + feminine noun (accusative singular)
Correct ending: kurz + e → kurze
So: eine kurze Ausspracheübung

You wouldn’t say:

✗ eine kurzen Ausspracheübung (wrong ending here).

So the form eine kurze Ausspracheübung is:
indefinite article (fem. acc.) + correctly declined adjective + noun.

What exactly does Ausspracheübung mean? Is it just two words stuck together?

Yes, Ausspracheübung is a compound noun, very typical in German:

die Aussprache = pronunciation
die Übung = exercise, practice

Put together:

die Ausspracheübung = pronunciation exercise

Points to note:

It’s written as one word, capitalized (because German nouns are capitalized).
It’s feminine because the last part (Übung) is feminine.
Plural: die Ausspracheübungen

You could also say:

eine Übung zur Aussprache = an exercise for pronunciation
but Ausspracheübung is shorter and very idiomatic.

Why is it mit einer Muttersprachlerin and not mit eine Muttersprachlerin?

The key is the preposition mit:

mit always takes the dative case in German.

Muttersprachlerin is a feminine noun:

Nominative: eine Muttersprachlerin
Accusative: eine Muttersprachlerin
Dative: einer Muttersprachlerin

So:

After mit, you need dative → einer:
- mit einer Muttersprachlerin = with a (female) native speaker

You cannot say:

✗ mit eine Muttersprachlerin (that would be nominative/accusative, wrong after mit).

So the form einer is required because mit → dative.

What’s the difference between Muttersprachler and Muttersprachlerin?

Both come from:

der Muttersprachler (male or sometimes generic)
die Muttersprachlerin (specifically female)

Meanings:

Muttersprachler = native speaker (male)
Muttersprachlerin = native speaker (female)

In many contexts, especially older or less gender-conscious language, Muttersprachler was used generically for “native speaker”. But in modern German, people often use Muttersprachlerin when they clearly refer to a woman, as in your sentence.

So mit einer Muttersprachlerin tells you explicitly that the native speaker is female.

Why are Kurs, Ausspracheübung, and Muttersprachlerin capitalized?

German always capitalizes nouns.

In this sentence:

Kurs (course) is a noun → capitalized.
Ausspracheübung (pronunciation exercise) is a compound noun → capitalized.
Muttersprachlerin (native speaker (fem.)) is a noun → capitalized.

Adjectives and verbs stay lowercase, unless they are part of a proper name or are turned into nouns (Nominalisierung). So:

kurze (short) is an adjective → lowercase.
machen (to do) is a verb → lowercase.

Why does the adjective kurze come before the noun, not after it, like in French or Spanish sometimes?

In German, attributive adjectives (adjectives that directly describe a noun) normally go before the noun:

eine kurze Übung = a short exercise
ein interessanter Kurs = an interesting course
eine nette Muttersprachlerin = a nice native speaker

Putting the adjective after the noun, as in:

✗ eine Übung kurze
is ungrammatical in standard German.

There are rare, fixed expressions or poetic uses where an adjective can follow the noun, but for normal everyday language you should always put the adjective before the noun and decline it correctly.

Can the phrase mit einer Muttersprachlerin go in a different place in the sentence?

Yes. German word order is relatively flexible for adverbial phrases and prepositional phrases like mit einer Muttersprachlerin.

These versions are all grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

Im Kurs machen wir eine kurze Ausspracheübung mit einer Muttersprachlerin.
→ Neutral; “with a native speaker” comes at the end as extra info.
Im Kurs machen wir mit einer Muttersprachlerin eine kurze Ausspracheübung.
→ Slightly more emphasis on the fact that it’s with a native speaker.
Mit einer Muttersprachlerin machen wir im Kurs eine kurze Ausspracheübung.
→ Strong emphasis on with a native speaker (that’s the first element).

What must not change is:

The conjugated verb (machen) must stay in second position in a main clause.
The parts of the verb phrase (like separable prefixes, if present) must follow it in the correct order.

Within those limits, elements like im Kurs, mit einer Muttersprachlerin, and eine kurze Ausspracheübung can often be moved around.