In der ersten Spalte notiere ich die neuen Wörter, in der zweiten die Übersetzung.

Because in is a two-way preposition in German. It can take:

• dative for a location: where something happens
• accusative for direction/movement toward somewhere

Here, the sentence describes where I write the words: in the first column. So German uses the dative:

• in der ersten Spalte

If it meant movement into the column, you would use accusative:

• in die erste Spalte

So here: location = dative.

German main clauses follow the verb-second rule: the finite verb must come in the second position.

That does not mean it has to be the second word. It means it has to be the second element in the sentence.

Here, the first element is:

• In der ersten Spalte

So the verb comes next:

• notiere

And the subject follows it:

• ich

That gives:

• In der ersten Spalte notiere ich die neuen Wörter

You could also say:

• Ich notiere die neuen Wörter in der ersten Spalte

That is also correct, just with a different emphasis.

Because adjectives in German change their endings depending on case, gender, and article.

Here, Spalte is:

• feminine
• used with der because it is in the dative singular

So the adjective takes the ending -en:

• in der ersten Spalte
• in der zweiten Spalte

This is a very common pattern: after a definite article like der, die, das, adjectives often take -en in the dative.

This is the direct object of notiere: it is what is being written down.

The noun Wörter is plural, and here it is in the accusative plural. In the accusative plural, the definite article is still:

• die

So:

• die Wörter = the words

The adjective neu becomes neuen because it follows the definite article die:

• die neuen Wörter

So the structure is:

• die = definite article, accusative plural
• neuen = adjective with the correct ending
• Wörter = plural noun

German has two plural forms of Wort, and they are used a bit differently:

• Wörter = individual words, separate vocabulary items
• Worte = words in the sense of utterances, statements, or solemn words

In this sentence, the speaker is listing new vocabulary items, so Wörter is the natural choice.

Examples:

• neue Wörter lernen = learn new words
• seine Worte klangen ernst = his words sounded serious

Because the sentence contains two coordinated parts:

• In der ersten Spalte notiere ich die neuen Wörter
• in der zweiten die Übersetzung

The second part leaves out some words that are understood from the first part. This is called ellipsis.

A fuller version would be:

• In der ersten Spalte notiere ich die neuen Wörter, in der zweiten notiere ich die Übersetzung.

Since German often separates such coordinated parts with a comma, the comma is natural here.

Because German often omits words that are easy to understand from context.

The full version would be:

• In der ersten Spalte notiere ich die neuen Wörter, in der zweiten notiere ich die Übersetzung.

In the actual sentence, notiere ich is omitted in the second part because it would simply repeat what was already said.

This kind of omission is very common and sounds natural.

Because Spalte is omitted, but still understood.

German often leaves out a noun when it is obvious from the context. So:

• in der zweiten really means in der zweiten Spalte

This works because the adjective, together with the article, clearly points back to the noun already mentioned.

English does something similar:

• in the first column ..., in the second ...

So this is a very natural shortening.

Not exactly.

• schreiben = to write
• notieren = to write down, note down, jot down

In this sentence, notieren fits well because the speaker is making a list or recording information in columns.

So notieren feels a bit more purposeful and list-like than the more general schreiben.

Because it refers to the translation as the thing written in the second column.

German often uses the singular here when talking about the translation corresponding to the listed words or entries. It is understood as:

• the translation for them
• the translation entry

You could imagine each row having a word and its translation, but the sentence describes the second column as containing the translation in a general sense.

So the singular sounds natural here.