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In a "Deutsche Welle" course I am taking, I saw the sentence:

"Willst du nicht mit nach Berlin kommen?"

I can't understand why the "mit" and "kommen" are separated here. From searching online and on these boards, it seems that when there is a modal verb, and your separable verb is at the end, you keep it together ("Willst du nicht nach Berlin mitkommen?").

What explains this case?

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  • Does this answer your question? »mit nach Hause nehmen« – grammatikalische Analyse
    – David Vogt
    Commented Oct 25, 2020 at 18:58
  • @David Vogt -- Note that the accepted answer for that question is in German. There is an answer in English, but I'm not sure that it's applicable to this question. I think the resolution in this case is that the verb really is just kommen and the mit is short for mit mir.
    – RDBury
    Commented Oct 25, 2020 at 19:44
  • Retracted my close vote because I did not pay attention to the language thing again. But the following question seems relevant: german.stackexchange.com/questions/61264/…
    – David Vogt
    Commented Oct 25, 2020 at 19:47

1 Answer 1

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The preposition mit is special. It may be combined with other prepositions.

Willst du nicht mit nach Berlin kommen?

That's not the separable verb mitkommen, but an adverbial mit nach Berlin, and the verb kommen.

Willst du nicht mit nach Berlin mitkommen?

That's the same adverbial, but the separable verb mitkommen. This variant is not common.

Willst du nicht nach Berlin mitkommen?

That's the adverbial nach Berlin, and again the separable verb mitkommen.

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  • I think it is a common way in spoken language to put emphasis on "the people" who are on the trip by adding the "mit" and it is not necessarily the verb "mitkommen" as already stated.
    – a2sng
    Commented Oct 31, 2020 at 9:57

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