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Meine Verwandtschaft kommt im Dezember zu Besuch.

Meine Verwandtschaft kommt im Dezember zu Besuch.
My relatives are coming to visit in December.
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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?

German verbs agree with the grammatical form of the subject, not just the real-world meaning.

The subject here is meine Verwandtschaft, and that noun is singular, so the verb is singular too:

  • Meine Verwandtschaft kommt

If the sentence used the plural noun Verwandte, then the verb would be plural:

  • Meine Verwandten kommen im Dezember zu Besuch.
What exactly does Verwandtschaft mean here? Is it the same as Familie?

Not exactly.

  • Verwandtschaft refers to relatives / kin, often more like extended family
  • Familie is family in a broader sense, often especially your close family

So Verwandtschaft focuses more on people you are related to. In everyday speech, many speakers might also say:

  • meine Verwandten = my relatives

That can sound a bit more concrete and natural when you mean actual people coming to visit.

Why is it im Dezember?

im is the contraction of:

  • in dem

With months, German often uses in for in a month, and this commonly appears as:

  • im Dezember
  • im Januar
  • im Mai

So im Dezember means in December.

The month name is treated as masculine here, which is why the contraction is im.

What does zu Besuch mean here?

zu Besuch is a fixed expression meaning visiting or on a visit.

So:

  • zu Besuch kommen = to come visit
  • zu Besuch sein = to be visiting

In this sentence, kommt ... zu Besuch means that the relatives will come in order to visit.

It is a very common German expression.

Why doesn’t the sentence just use besuchen?

It could, but the structure would be different.

  • zu Besuch kommen focuses on coming as visitors
  • besuchen is a normal verb meaning to visit, and it usually takes a direct object

For example:

  • Meine Verwandtschaft kommt im Dezember zu Besuch.
  • Meine Verwandtschaft besucht uns im Dezember.

The first one does not need to say whom they are visiting.
The second one normally does.

Why is there no article in zu Besuch?

Because zu Besuch is an idiomatic fixed phrase.

German has several common expressions of this type, for example:

  • zu Hause
  • zu Fuß
  • zu Besuch

Even though Besuch is a noun, the phrase is used without an article.

Also, zu normally takes the dative, but in modern German you usually do not see any special dative ending on a noun like Besuch in this expression.

Can I also say Meine Verwandten kommen im Dezember zu Besuch?

Yes, absolutely.

That version is often more straightforward for learners, because:

  • Verwandten is a normal plural noun meaning relatives
  • the verb becomes plural: kommen

So:

  • Meine Verwandtschaft kommt ... = my relatives / my extended family as a group is coming
  • Meine Verwandten kommen ... = my relatives are coming

Both are possible, but Verwandten may sound more concrete and more common in everyday speech.

Is the word order fixed?

The most important rule is that in a main clause, the conjugated verb must be in second position.

Here:

  1. Meine Verwandtschaft
  2. kommt
  3. im Dezember
  4. zu Besuch

So the sentence is perfectly normal.

You can move parts around for emphasis, as long as the verb stays second:

  • Im Dezember kommt meine Verwandtschaft zu Besuch.

That is also very natural.

But something like:

  • Zu Besuch kommt meine Verwandtschaft im Dezember

is possible only in a more marked or unusual style. The original word order is much more neutral.

Why is Besuch capitalized?

Because Besuch is a noun, and all nouns in German are capitalized.

So even inside a fixed expression like zu Besuch, the noun still keeps its capital letter.