2

My books says:

  1. Time expressions go in the accusative.
  2. Feminine adjectives without article take the declension -e in the accusative.

Then what is going on with "nächster Woche" in the following sentence?

Ich möchte für Dienstagabend nächster Woche einen Tisch reservieren.

Nächster Woche is a time expression, Woche is feminine and nächster is an adjective. Following the rules it should be nächste Woche.

How do I make sense of it?

|improve this question|||||
2

für Dienstagabend nächster Woche

"nächster Woche" is a genitive within this whole accusative object. Therefore the different ending. E.g. as direct accusative object "für nächste Woche" would be correct, as you expected.

|improve this answer|||||
  • 1
    Could you elaborate please?. I am a beginner. How do I recognize it is genitive? Genitive is used for posession, right, (which i don't see here)? The whole expression" für Dienstagabend nächster" since to be a single answer for the question Wan? Dienstagabend nächster Woche – juan carlos vega oliver Dec 5 '19 at 15:37
  • 1
    @juan carlos vega oliver - Possession is just one use case. Here you give a closer specification: it's not just any Tuesday evening but the Tuesday evening of next week. You see, in English it's a genitive structure, too: next week's Tuesday. – mic Dec 5 '19 at 15:43
  • Then I should be able to write using "von" and the dative instead of the genitive: für Dienstagabend von nächster (in dative) Woche . Would that be correct? – juan carlos vega oliver Dec 5 '19 at 15:58
  • @juan carlos vega oliver - That's talk you may actually hear in Germany but grammar books (-> tests) will probably not let you get away with it. So, officially it's wrong and sounds a bit weird (unnecessary complicated), too. – mic Dec 5 '19 at 16:12

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.