"Am Montag lernen wir."
Translation:On Monday we learn.
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On Monday we play soccer. On Monday we study biology. On Monday we go out to eat. On Monday we work. On Monday we watch TV. On Thursday we sing. (Like in choir.) On Saturday we relax. At night we sleep. It's not a weird construction at all...
Notice all of those have a subject after the verb, save for work. You wanted them to sound normal, which is why you didn't just say: On Monday we play. On Monday we study. On Monday we eat out. Maybe they're fine structurally, but realistically we would add "will" (or, more likely, "we'll"). Your examples I imagine written: On Monday -- we play! Maybe said in the tone of a Game of Thrones character. On Monday -- we dine on the flesh of our enemies! But no one says: On Monday, we learn. Maybe a teacher who's implying that, at the end of the day Friday, she realizes the class has not learned anything.
Yeah, things can often be swapped around in sentences in German. You could also say "Wir lernen am Montag".
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A better translation in my opinion is "We will learn on Monday". This is because Germans often create a future statement by using the present tense and then throwing it into the future by giving a future time.
We do this in english too:
"I am playing tennis next week"
"We are going to France in the summer"
The subject and object in a sentence can be switched around but the verb stays in the same spot. It can be:
- Wir lernen am Montag.
or
- Am Montag lernen wir.
When the subject (the thing accusative or dative thing) is put before the verb, the object (the nominative thing) goes after it. There's no real difference in meaning that it creates that I'm aware of, it just puts more emphasis on the word that comes first.
Some more examples:
-
Ich esse den Apfel. > Den Apfel esse ich.
-
Er schläft im Bett. > Im Bett schläft er.
To add to this, whenever you start a sentence with time, the verb is in the second position.
Heute, gehen wir.... Heute morgen, trinken wir...
Isn't the verb always in the second position in statements, regardless of whether we start the sentence with time?
The verb is ALWAYS in the second position(except in like questions and im sure there are other situations that negate ALWAYS but always as far as ive seen.) In this example, the phrase An Montag is the first position and then the verb.
This has more to do with English idioms. "at noon" or "at 10 o'clock" (time), "on Monday" (day of the week), "on the fourth of July" (date), "in winter" (season), in August (month), in 1989 (year) Sometimes it is because in German a different preposition is used than in English, but in English we even use different prepositions with the same verb for almost the same thing to add a subtle difference in meaning. (In German the same preposition can be in a different case for a different meaning.) Why do we say we look at something, but when we are standing around and not participating we are looking on? http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa052101a.htm http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/am http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/an http://german.about.com/od/grammar/a/DualPrepositions.htm http://german.about.com/library/anfang/blanfang12b.htm http://german.about.com/library/bltimegloss.htm
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Is this supposed to be an implied future action (i.e "We learn/study next Monday?") or is it a habit (i.e. "We learn/study on Monday(s))"? Or could it be either depending on the context?
"On Monday we study", is the way we say this in English. We will, hopefully, learn by studying, that there is a not so subtle difference between the way "to learn/lernen" and "to study/studieren" is used in the two languages. Germans often use "lernen" where in English we use "to study".
I tried 'We'll learn on monday' since it seems like an acceptable alternative to 'We learn on monday' in English.
I thought because of the flexibility of phrase structure it could be "We're learning by Monday." Can somebody explain why is this wrong?
“We're learning by Monday.” or "Wir lernen vor dem Montag.“ means that you are learning it before Monday to be ready for Monday. This sentence says that you are learning on Monday. http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/an
I see why you might have thought that since sometimes "am" can mean "by" when talking about position, but for time English is very specific about which preposition to use. http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-german/by http://german.about.com/library/anfang/blanfang12.htm http://german.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/PrepPitfalls.htm http://german.about.com/library/bltimegloss.htm
I feel like this is an incomplete sentence. What context would you use this in as it is?
I wrote "we are learning on Monday" and was marked wrong, as Duo suggested the correct answer as "We learn on Monday". Is this a mistake to report or am I missing something?
It won't accept "We find out on Monday " but I think this is a possible translation. For example "Am Montag lernen wir, ob er kommt oder nicht".
In german, they put the verb after or before the time adverb. Such as : on monday, learn we. Time+ verb+ subject
"on monday we study" should be accepted , as "lernen" is often used in the sense of studying in German. In another exercise "study" was accepted for "lernen."..
