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German Level 4 - Lesson 18 - Question on DIR OBJ and TIME Position
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In the exercise/workout where you translate the phrases from English to German:
"One needs a bike in Berlin. You(i) have to buy one tomorrow".
My answer was: "Man braucht in Berlin ein Fahrrad. Du musst EINS MORGEN kaufen" because I was following the structure provided in a past lesson: "subject + verb + DIRECT OBJECT PRONOUN + indirect obj (noun/pronoun) + TIME + manner + place + direct object noun + infinitive/past participle".
However, my answer was not accepted. The correct answer was: "Man braucht in Berlin ein Fahrrad. Du musst MORGEN EINS kaufen", which does not follow the structure. If I understood correctly, "eins" is a direct object pronoun. Am I missing something? What is the reason why "morgen" (time) comes before "eins"?Thanks.
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Hi @allen10086
Great question! You're absolutely right that eins functions as a direct object pronoun here, and German word order rules can be tricky.
In general, German follows the TeKaMoLo (Temporal - Kausal - Modal - Lokal) structure for adverbial phrases, but pronouns tend to take precedence. When you have a direct object pronoun (eins), it typically comes before time expressions like morgen. This is why "Du musst morgen eins kaufen" is correct rather than "Du musst eins morgen kaufen".This is a special case where the presence of a pronoun slightly overrides the usual time-first rule. Keep up the great work, and let us know if you have any other questions!
