Meine Verwandtschaft kommt im Dezember zu Besuch.

my; (masculine or neuter, nominative)

Breakdown of Meine Verwandtschaft kommt im Dezember zu Besuch.

• im: in the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
• die Verwandtschaft: the extended family
• der Dezember: December

Questions & Answers about Meine Verwandtschaft kommt im Dezember zu Besuch.

Why is Verwandtschaft singular even though it refers to more than one person?

Because Verwandtschaft is a collective noun. It means something like one’s relatives / kin / extended family as a group.

So in German, it is grammatically:

• feminine
• singular

That is why the sentence has:

• meine rather than a plural form
• kommt rather than kommen

If you want to talk about the individual people more directly, German often uses meine Verwandten instead.

Why is it meine Verwandtschaft and not meiner Verwandtschaft?

Because Verwandtschaft is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case.

Since Verwandtschaft is feminine singular, the correct possessive form is:

• meine Verwandtschaft

Compare:

• meine Verwandtschaft = nominative / accusative feminine singular
• meiner Verwandtschaft = dative / genitive feminine singular

So here, meine is used because the relatives are the ones doing the action.

Why is the verb kommt singular?