Wir sprechen über Religion.

In German, the first word of every sentence is capitalized, so wir becomes Wir here.

Unlike English, German does not normally capitalize pronouns like wir just because they are pronouns. It is capitalized only because it starts the sentence.

Because the subject is wir (we).

In the present tense, sprechen is conjugated like this:

• ich spreche = I speak
• du sprichst = you speak
• er/sie/es spricht = he/she/it speaks
• wir sprechen = we speak
• ihr sprecht = you all speak
• sie/Sie sprechen = they/you (formal) speak

So wir sprechen is the correct form for we speak / we are talking.

It is partly irregular.

The stem vowel changes from e to i in some forms:

• du sprichst
• er/sie/es spricht

But with wir and sie, it stays sprechen:

• wir sprechen
• sie sprechen

So in this sentence, you use the regular-looking plural form sprechen.

Here, über means about.

So über Religion means about religion.

Be careful: über can also mean things like over, above, or across in other contexts. But with sprechen, the combination über + something usually means to talk about something.

Yes, it is a very common pattern:

• über etwas sprechen = to talk about something

So you can think of sprechen über as a standard verb-preposition combination.

Examples:

• Wir sprechen über Politik.
• Sie sprechen über das Problem.
• Ich spreche über meine Familie.

This is similar to learning that English uses talk about, not just talk by itself in the same way.

Here, Religion is in the accusative case, because über meaning about takes the accusative.

So the pattern is:

• über + accusative

Examples:

• über den Film
• über die Schule
• über das Buch
• über Religion

In this sentence, you cannot see a special ending on Religion, but it is still functioning as an accusative noun.

Because Religion is being used in a general, abstract sense.

German often leaves out the article with abstract nouns when speaking about something in general:

• über Religion = about religion
• über Liebe = about love
• über Politik = about politics

If you wanted to talk about a specific religion, you would often use an article or a more specific phrase, for example:

• über die Religion der Römer
• über eine Religion aus Asien

But in Wir sprechen über Religion, the idea is general, so no article is needed.

Religion is a feminine noun:

• die Religion

Its plural is:

• die Religionen

In this sentence, the article is simply omitted because the noun is being used in a general sense.

This is normal main-clause word order in German:

• subject
  • finite verb
    • rest of the sentence

So:

• Wir = subject
• sprechen = finite verb
• über Religion = prepositional phrase

German main clauses usually put the conjugated verb in second position. Since Wir comes first, sprechen comes second.

A rough pronunciation is:

• SHPREKH-en

A few important points:

• sp at the beginning of a German word is usually pronounced shp
• ch in sprechen is the soft sound heard in words like ich
• the r is usually not pronounced like a strong English r

So sprechen does not sound like English sprekken.

A rough pronunciation is:

• OOE-ber or UE-ber

The most important thing is the ü. It is not the same as English oo or you.

To make ü:

1. Say ee
2. Keep your tongue in that position
3. Round your lips as if saying oo

That gives you the German ü sound.

Also, the first syllable is stressed:

• Über

Yes.

German present tense often covers both meanings that English separates into:

• We speak about religion
• We are talking about religion

So Wir sprechen über Religion can work for either, depending on context.

Yes. This sentence pattern is very useful:

• Wir sprechen über + accusative noun

Examples:

• Wir sprechen über Musik.
• Wir sprechen über das Wetter.
• Wir sprechen über unseren Urlaub.
• Wir sprechen über ein Problem.

So once you know sprechen über, you can use it with many different topics.