Auf dem Teller liegen Trauben neben dem Brot, und meine Freundin nimmt nur die Kirschen.

In a German main clause, the finite verb normally has to be in second position.

Here, Auf dem Teller is placed first:

• Auf dem Teller = position 1
• liegen = position 2
• Trauben = subject, after the verb

So the structure is:

Auf dem Teller | liegen | Trauben ...

This is very normal in German. A time/place phrase can come first, and then the verb must come immediately after it.

If you put the subject first, you could also say:

Trauben liegen auf dem Teller neben dem Brot.

That is also grammatical, but it has a slightly different emphasis.

Because auf and neben are two-way prepositions in German. They can take either:

• dative for location (where?)
• accusative for direction/movement toward a place (where to?)

In this sentence, the grapes are already located there, so German uses the dative:

• auf dem Teller = on the plate
• neben dem Brot = next to the bread

Compare:

• Die Trauben liegen auf dem Teller. = They are on the plate. (location → dative)
• Ich lege die Trauben auf den Teller. = I put the grapes onto the plate. (movement → accusative)

German often prefers a position verb where English would simply use to be.

Here, liegen means to lie or to be lying. It is commonly used for things that are:

• not upright
• resting on a surface
• spread out or placed somewhere

So for grapes on a plate, liegen sounds natural.

German often distinguishes:

• liegen = lie, be lying
• stehen = stand, be standing/upright
• sitzen = sit, be seated / be located in a sitting way

You could say Trauben sind auf dem Teller, but liegen is more idiomatic and more precise.

German often allows a bare plural noun with no article when it means something like some grapes or just grapes as items present.

So:

• liegen Trauben = there are grapes lying there / grapes are lying there

But die Kirschen uses the article because it refers to a specific set of cherries, probably the cherries visible in this situation.

So the contrast is roughly:

• Trauben = grapes are present
• die Kirschen = the cherries (those particular cherries)

If you said nimmt nur Kirschen, it would sound more like she only eats/takes cherries as a type, less like she is choosing specific cherries from what is there.

Yes, die Kirschen is the direct object, so it is in the accusative case.

But in German, plural accusative and plural nominative often look the same:

• nominative plural: die Kirschen
• accusative plural: die Kirschen
• dative plural: den Kirschen

The verb nehmen takes an accusative object:

• Sie nimmt die Kirschen.

So die Kirschen is correct.

Because meine Freundin is the subject of the second clause, so it is in the nominative case.

The second clause is:

meine Freundin nimmt nur die Kirschen

Here:

• meine Freundin = subject (who is doing the action?)
• nimmt = verb
• nur die Kirschen = object

So nominative is required:

• meine Freundin = nominative
• meiner Freundin would usually be dative or sometimes genitive, so it would not fit here

nur means only.

In this sentence, it limits the object:

meine Freundin nimmt nur die Kirschen
= my girlfriend takes only the cherries

So the idea is that she does not take the grapes or the bread.

In German, nur is often placed directly before the word or phrase it focuses on. Here it comes right before die Kirschen, which makes the meaning very clear.

Because after und, you get a new main clause, and German main clauses again follow the verb-second rule.

So in:

..., und meine Freundin nimmt nur die Kirschen

the clause structure is:

• meine Freundin = position 1
• nimmt = position 2
• nur die Kirschen = rest of the clause

This is standard German word order for a main clause.

Because the subject is Trauben, which is plural.

The verb has to agree with the subject:

• die Traube liegt = the grape lies
• die Trauben liegen = the grapes lie

So liegen is the correct plural form here.

Here, neben takes the dative because it describes location:

• neben dem Brot = next to the bread

But neben is another two-way preposition, so it does not always take dative.

It works like this:

• dative = location
  Die Trauben liegen neben dem Brot.
• accusative = movement toward
  Ich lege die Trauben neben das Brot.

So in this sentence, it is dative because nothing is moving.

Not always. In German, a comma before und connecting two main clauses is often optional.

So both of these can be acceptable:

• Auf dem Teller liegen Trauben neben dem Brot und meine Freundin nimmt nur die Kirschen.
• Auf dem Teller liegen Trauben neben dem Brot, und meine Freundin nimmt nur die Kirschen.

The comma is often used to make the sentence easier to read, especially when the clauses are a bit longer or clearly separate ideas.

Because all nouns are capitalized in German.

So in this sentence:

• der Teller
• die Trauben
• das Brot
• die Freundin
• die Kirschen

This is one of the most noticeable spelling rules in German, and it applies whether the noun is at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.