German Sentence Breakdown

Question

To understand German better I've been breaking down words in sentences to understand how the sentence is made up so that when I make my own, I have an idea of where to go with it, however, the I've seen sentences like this that throw me through a loop.

Ich gehe zu jemandem nach Hause.

To me, this translates to "I am going to somebody's to house." Which doesn't make sense in English. So, what is up with this?

Answer 1

• Ich = I
  Subject. This is the part of speech that describes the thing that is performing the action. Subject is always in nominative case, and you often find the subject at position 1 of the sentence.
• gehe = go
  Predicate. This is the part of speech that describes the action itself. It is a verb. In a German statement (»Aussagesatz«) the predicate (or at least a part of it) occupies always position 2 of the sentence.
• zu jemandem = to somebody
  Prepositional object, i.e. an object that start with a preposition.
  • zu = to
    Local preposition. You use it when you want to tell the target of a movement.
  • jemandem = somebody
    Dative object. When used after »zu« the target of a moment.
• nach Hause = home
  Prepositional object
  • nach = to
    Local preposition. You use it when you want to tell the target of a movement.
  • Hause = home
    Dative object. Target of a moment.

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The part »nach Hause« literally is »to (towards) home«, but in English you just say »home«.

This sentence says two things:

1. I go to somebody.
2. I go (to a) home.

This only makes sense, if the home is not your (the sentences I) home, but somebody's home. So the complete sentence is in English:

I go to somebody's home.

You can replace somebody by a concrete person:

Ich gehe zu Michael nach Hause.
I go to to Michael's home.

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This is also worth knowing:

• nach Hause = homewards
• zu Hause = at home

Normally you use »zu« to describe a movement to a target, and the target ist written after »zu«. But in combination with »Hause« it describes a place, not a movement!