Breakdown of Wegen der Zeitverschiebung muss ich spät abends mit der Universität im Ausland telefonieren.
Questions & Answers about Wegen der Zeitverschiebung muss ich spät abends mit der Universität im Ausland telefonieren.
The preposition wegen normally takes the genitive case in standard German.
- The noun is die Zeitverschiebung (feminine, singular).
- Feminine genitive singular of the article is der.
→ wegen der Zeitverschiebung = because of the time difference.
So die (nominative) becomes der (genitive).
Complication: in everyday spoken German, many people use the dative after wegen. For feminine nouns, genitive and dative have the same article der, so you can’t see the difference in this example. With a masculine noun you would see it:
- Standard genitive: wegen des Staus (because of the traffic jam)
- Colloquial dative: wegen dem Stau
Zeitverschiebung is feminine: die Zeitverschiebung.
A very reliable pattern: almost all nouns ending in -ung are feminine.
Examples:
- die Bedeutung (meaning)
- die Leitung (line, management)
- die Bewegung (movement)
So when you see -ung, you can usually assume die in the nominative singular and then apply the usual feminine declension (der in genitive and dative singular, etc.).
In German, telefonieren is usually intransitive with respect to the person you talk to. You don’t “phone someone” directly as an object; you phone with someone:
- mit jemandem telefonieren = to phone/talk on the phone with someone
So:
- mit der Universität im Ausland telefonieren
= to phone with the university abroad → to phone the university abroad.
If you want to have a direct object like in English phone someone, you normally use anrufen instead:
Yes, you can. The structure changes slightly:
… muss ich spät abends mit der Universität im Ausland telefonieren.
→ focus on the ongoing activity of being on the phone with the university.… muss ich spät abends die Universität im Ausland anrufen.
→ focus on the act of calling the university (dialing/ringing them).
With anrufen, you use a direct accusative object (no preposition):
- jemanden anrufen = to call someone
- die Universität anrufen, meine Eltern anrufen, etc.
Both are correct; it’s mostly a stylistic/nuance difference.
The preposition mit always takes the dative case.
- Nominative: die Universität (feminine)
- Dative singular feminine: der Universität
So:
- mit der Universität = with the university
Other examples:
- mit der Frau (with the woman)
- mit der Lehrerin (with the (female) teacher)
Ausland is a neuter noun: das Ausland (abroad, foreign countries).
In the sentence, you have:
- in + dem Ausland (dative, location)
→ This contracts in speech and writing to im Ausland.
So:
- im Ausland literally = in the abroad → idiomatically, abroad.
You cannot say in Ausland without an article here; it sounds wrong to native speakers in this context. The usual expression is im Ausland.
The full, non‑contracted form in dem Ausland is correct but sounds formal and is rarely used; im Ausland is the normal form.
The difference is location vs. movement, expressed by dative vs. accusative with in:
im Ausland = in dem Ausland (dative)
→ location: being abroad- Ich studiere im Ausland. – I’m studying abroad.
ins Ausland = in das Ausland (accusative)
→ direction/movement: to abroad / to a foreign country- Ich fahre ins Ausland. – I’m going abroad.
In your sentence it’s about location of the university (where it is), so im Ausland is correct.
Both word orders are correct:
- Wegen der Zeitverschiebung muss ich spät abends … telefonieren.
- Ich muss wegen der Zeitverschiebung spät abends … telefonieren.
German main clauses follow the verb‑second rule:
- The finite verb (here: muss) must be in second position.
- Exactly one element (could be the subject, a time phrase, a prepositional phrase, etc.) can stand before the verb.
In your sentence, the speaker puts the reason first for emphasis:
- Wegen der Zeitverschiebung (first element)
- muss (finite verb, second position)
- ich … spät abends mit der Universität im Ausland telefonieren (rest of the clause)
If you start with Ich, then ich is the first element and muss is still in second position:
- Ich (1) muss (2) wegen der Zeitverschiebung … telefonieren.
Because muss is a modal verb, and German handles modal verbs with a special word order:
- The modal verb (müssen, können, wollen, dürfen, sollen, mögen) is the finite verb and goes in second position.
- The main verb (telefonieren, here) appears as a bare infinitive at the end of the clause.
Structure:
- [Element] + [finite modal] + … + [infinitive at the end]
So:
- Wegen der Zeitverschiebung (element 1)
- muss (finite modal, position 2)
- ich spät abends mit der Universität im Ausland (middle field)
- telefonieren (infinitive at the end)
Other examples:
- Heute muss ich lange arbeiten.
- Morgen will er seine Eltern besuchen.
Each option has a slightly different nuance:
- abends = in the evening(s), typically / habitually.
- spät abends = late in the evening(s) → a usual or repeated time frame.
- am Abend = in the evening (more like a specific evening or part of the day).
- Heute Abend / am Abend can refer to this evening.
- später Abend is a noun phrase (late evening), usually used with an article:
- am späten Abend = in the late evening.
In your sentence, spät abends suggests something that regularly happens late in the evening, which fits the idea of an ongoing situation caused by a time difference.
Forms like morgens, mittags, nachmittags, abends, nachts are adverbs of time that mean “(regularly) in the …”.
- abends = in the evening(s)
- morgens = in the morning(s)
- nachts = at night
They’re very common in everyday German and express a typical or repeated time of day, rather than a single specific day.
German capitalizes all nouns, regardless of where they appear in a sentence.
- Zeitverschiebung (time difference) – noun
- Universität (university) – noun
- Ausland (foreign country / abroad) – noun
So they must be written with an initial capital letter, even in the middle of a sentence.
German very often forms compounds by joining nouns together into a single word.
- Zeit = time
- Verschiebung = shift, displacement
→ Zeitverschiebung = time shift / time difference (due to time zones)
Writing them as two separate words (Zeit Verschiebung) would be incorrect; it must be one compound noun. This is a very productive pattern in German:
- Zeitplan (time schedule)
- Sprachschule (language school)
- Universitätsbibliothek (university library)