Breakdown of Im Februar schreibt meine Schwägerin schon die ersten Nachrichten an alle.
Questions & Answers about Im Februar schreibt meine Schwägerin schon die ersten Nachrichten an alle.
To say in February, German normally uses im + month:
- im Februar
- im März
- im Juli
im is the contraction of in dem. In standard German, in Februar is not correct here.
So for months, the usual pattern is:
- im Januar
- im Februar
- im Dezember
Because German main clauses follow the verb-second rule. The conjugated verb must come in the second position.
Here, Im Februar is placed first. Since that whole time phrase takes the first slot, the verb schreibt has to come next:
- Im Februar | schreibt | meine Schwägerin ...
If you started with the subject instead, that would also be correct:
- Meine Schwägerin schreibt im Februar schon die ersten Nachrichten an alle.
Because the subject is meine Schwägerin, which is third-person singular (she).
The present tense of schreiben goes like this:
- ich schreibe
- du schreibst
- er/sie/es schreibt
- wir schreiben
- ihr schreibt
- sie/Sie schreiben
So with meine Schwägerin, you need schreibt.
Here schon means already or as early as.
It suggests that February is relatively early for this action:
- Im Februar schreibt meine Schwägerin schon ... = In February, my sister-in-law is already writing ...
So the idea is not just that she writes in February, but that she does so earlier than one might expect.
Schwägerin is a feminine singular noun, so the possessive has to match it:
- mein Bruder
- meine Schwester
- meine Schwägerin
In this sentence, meine Schwägerin is the subject.
A useful thing to know: possessives in German change their endings depending on gender, number, and case, much like articles do.
It is the accusative, because it is the direct object of schreibt—it is the thing being written.
Ask yourself: What does she write?
Answer: die ersten Nachrichten
That makes it the direct object.
Because Nachrichten is plural, the form die can be either nominative plural or accusative plural. In this sentence, we know it is accusative from its role in the sentence.
Because the adjective comes after the definite article die, so it takes a weak adjective ending.
- die ersten Nachrichten
The article die already shows the grammatical information, so the adjective usually gets -en here.
Compare:
- die ersten Nachrichten
- die neuen Bücher
- die kleinen Kinder
So ersten is the expected form after die in plural.
Yes, schreiben can take a dative recipient:
- Sie schreibt allen.
= She writes to everyone.
But with nouns like Nachrichten, Briefe, or E-Mails, German also very often uses an + accusative to show who the messages are addressed to:
- Nachrichten an alle schreiben
- einen Brief an seine Eltern schreiben
- eine E-Mail an den Chef schreiben
So this sentence uses a very common pattern:
something written + an + recipient
It is accusative.
That is because an here takes the accusative in this expression:
- an alle
- an meine Freunde
- an den Lehrer
Also, alle here stands on its own, without a noun after it, and means everyone or all of them.
Compare:
- an alle = to everyone
- allen = to everyone, but in dative without an
Yes, German word order is somewhat flexible, especially in the middle of the sentence. But some versions sound more natural than others.
The given sentence is very natural:
- Im Februar schreibt meine Schwägerin schon die ersten Nachrichten an alle.
You may also hear slightly different orders depending on emphasis, for example:
- Meine Schwägerin schreibt im Februar schon die ersten Nachrichten an alle.
That said, the original order is a good neutral pattern: time first, verb second, then subject, then the rest.
Because all German nouns are capitalized.
So in this sentence:
- Februar = noun
- Schwägerin = noun
- Nachrichten = noun
But words like im, schreibt, schon, and an are not nouns, so they are not capitalized.
This is one of the most noticeable spelling differences between German and English.