lesson 9.1

hallo alle Zusammen

In this sentence. Nicht viel. Ich war kurz in der Stadt. 

I know the der is dative, but why?

has this got something to do with kurz as in time?

As no explanation in the lesson

Danke

Maxie

Hallo Maxie,

Good job on identifying the dative case here!

The preposition in can take both the accusative and dative case. So how do we know which case we need to use? 

If the sentence indicates a movement and can be answered to the question Wohin? ("Where to?"), we need to accusative case, for example:

Ich gehe in die Stadt - I am going to town.

Wohin gehe ich? → In die Stadt. - Where am I going to? → To town. (Movement)

If the sentence indicates a (static) location and can be answered to the question Wo? ("Where?), we need the dative case, for example:

Ich bin in der Stadt. - I am in town. 

Wo bin ich? → In der Stadt. - Where am I? → In town. (Location)

Hope this helps!

Viele Grüße, 

Julia

Thank you Julia 

That is very well explained as always. I am slowly making headway and recognizing all the nuances. Am taking it slowly. It was snowing today on Vancouver Island and I was sending an email to my penfriend in Germany. I wanted to write this in German. Not just es schneit and was able to write a descriptive sentence about easily. Es freut mich!

Maxie 

Hallo Maxie, 

That's great, sounds like you're making good progress then!

Weiter so!

Viele Grüße,

Julia