Im Januar machen wir oft ein kleines Familientreffen bei meiner Schwägerin.

In January we often have a small family gathering at my sister-in-law’s place.

Breakdown of Im Januar machen wir oft ein kleines Familientreffen bei meiner Schwägerin.

• wir: we
• klein: small
• oft: often
• machen: to make
• mein: my
• im: in the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
• bei: at
• ein: a; (neuter, nominative or accusative)
• die Schwägerin: the sister-in-law
• das Familientreffen: the family gathering
• der Januar: January

Questions & Answers about Im Januar machen wir oft ein kleines Familientreffen bei meiner Schwägerin.

Why does the sentence start with Im Januar, and why is the verb machen before wir?

German main clauses usually follow the verb-second rule: the finite verb comes in the second position.

So in this sentence:

• Im Januar = first position
• machen = second position
• wir = comes after the verb

That is why you get:

Im Januar machen wir oft ein kleines Familientreffen ...

If you started with the subject instead, that would also be correct:

Wir machen im Januar oft ein kleines Familientreffen ...

The difference is mainly emphasis. Starting with Im Januar highlights the time.

Why is it im Januar and not in Januar?

Im is the contraction of in dem:

• in dem Januar → im Januar

With months, German normally uses in + dative to mean in/during that month:

• im Januar
• im Mai
• im Dezember

So in Januar is not correct here.

Why is Januar capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, not just proper names at the start of a sentence.

So these are capitalized because they are nouns:

• Januar
• Familientreffen
• Schwägerin

This is one of the most noticeable spelling differences from English.

Why do Germans say ein Familientreffen machen? It sounds like make a family meeting.

This is a good example of a German verb-noun combination.
German often uses machen with event nouns where English might use have, hold, or just a simple verb.

So:

• ein Familientreffen machen

means something like:

• have a small family gathering
• hold a little family get-together

It does not literally mean physically creating the meeting. It is just a normal German way to express organizing or having such an event.

Why is oft placed there?

Oft is an adverb of frequency, meaning often.

In this sentence it comes after the verb and subject:

Im Januar machen wir oft ein kleines Familientreffen ...

That position is very natural in German. Adverbs like oft, immer, manchmal, and selten are fairly flexible, but they often appear in the middle field of the sentence, after the verb.

For example, these are all possible, though with slightly different emphasis:

• Im Januar machen wir oft ein kleines Familientreffen ...
• Wir machen oft im Januar ein kleines Familientreffen ...
• Oft machen wir im Januar ein kleines Familientreffen ...

The original version is very normal and neutral.

Why is it ein kleines Familientreffen and not ein kleiner or ein kleines Familien Treffen?

There are two things happening here.

1. Why is it kleines?
Because Familientreffen is neuter.

The noun Treffen is neuter: das Treffen.
In a compound noun, the last part determines the gender, so:

• das Treffen
• das Familientreffen

With ein + a neuter noun in the accusative, the adjective takes -es:

• ein kleines Familientreffen

2. Why is it one word?
German very often forms compound nouns as one single word:

• Familie
  • Treffen = Familientreffen

So Familientreffen is correct, not Familien Treffen.

How do we know Familientreffen is the object of the sentence?

It is the direct object of machen, and it is in the accusative case.

You can see that from:

• ein kleines Familientreffen

Since Familientreffen is neuter, the article ein looks the same in nominative and accusative, but in this sentence it functions as the thing being done/held:

• Wir machen was?
  Ein kleines Familientreffen.

So it is the accusative object.

Why is it bei meiner Schwägerin?

Bei often means at, at the home/place of, or with depending on context.

Here, bei meiner Schwägerin means:

• at my sister-in-law’s place
• at the home of my sister-in-law

This is a very common use of bei with people:

• bei meiner Mutter
• bei Freunden
• bei unserem Nachbarn

So the sentence means the gathering happens at her place.

Why is it meiner Schwägerin and not meine Schwägerin?

Because bei takes the dative case.

The noun Schwägerin is feminine, so in the dative singular:

• die Schwägerin → der Schwägerin

And the possessive changes too:

• meine → meiner

So:

• bei meiner Schwägerin

This is a standard dative pattern after bei.

What exactly does Schwägerin mean?

Schwägerin means sister-in-law.

Depending on the family relationship, it can refer to:

• your spouse’s sister
• your sibling’s wife

German uses the same word for both.
The masculine form is Schwager.

Could you also say Wir machen im Januar oft ... instead?

Yes, absolutely.

Both of these are correct:

• Im Januar machen wir oft ein kleines Familientreffen bei meiner Schwägerin.
• Wir machen im Januar oft ein kleines Familientreffen bei meiner Schwägerin.

The difference is mostly about focus:

• Im Januar ... puts the spotlight on when
• Wir ... starts more neutrally with the subject

German allows this kind of reordering quite often, as long as the finite verb stays in second position in a main clause.