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Wir machen immer zusammen viel Spaß. Wir singen gern zusammen, wir sehen gern zusammen lustige Videos an, und wir lesen gern zusammen.

This is something I’m trying to write. I am confused as to where zusammen should go in these clauses.

Can it be placed at the end of a sentence? Would that change the meaning of the sentence?

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I think, too many repetitions make a text boring, could also be a rhetorical instrument, anyway:

My suggest/recommendation:

Wir haben immer viel Spaß miteinander: Wir singen gern zusammen, sehen uns lustige Videos an oder lesen gemeinsam.

ad " Wir sehen uns lustige Videos an.

Infinitive of "ansehen" needs in this combination a reflexive pronoun

sich (etw.) ansehen / to watch sth.

for example:

1.P, singular: Ich sehe mir einen Film an.
2.P, sing.: Du siehst dir einen Film an.
3.P, sing.: Er sieht sich einen Film an.
1.P, plural.: Wir sehen uns einen Film an.
2.P, pl.: Ihr seht euch einen Film an.
3.P, pl.: Sie sehen sich einen Film an.

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  • Danke sehr! What ist the purpose of ‘uns’ in your suggested sentence? – user392289 Aug 16 '20 at 13:14
  • Thank you so much for your detailed reponse. – user392289 Aug 16 '20 at 13:31
  • you'r welcome :-) – TylwythTag-VIE Aug 16 '20 at 13:33
  • For the reflexive combination sich ansehen see, this similar (German) question concerning sich teilen: Apparently this is a more wide-spread issue, that German has more reflexive combinations. – guidot♦ Aug 17 '20 at 9:18
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The second sentence with its three parts is perfect, maybe a bit repetitive, but that can also be a rhetorical means of emphasizing, which seems to fit what you're saying.

In the first sentence, the position of zusammen that you chose sounds just a tiny bit off to me in more formal writing, while fine in everyday use, but I'm not even sure other native speakers will also see it that way.

I would probably put it before the immer or at the end of the sentence.

Wir machen zusammen immer viel Spaß.

Wir machen immer viel Spaß zusammen.

Zusammen machen wir immer viel Spaß.

Even though it's not the question, let me add that the idiom "Spaß machen" might not be what you're trying to say here. Well of course I don't know what you're really trying to say, so ignore this if I'm wrong...

"Wir machen Spaß" as it's used here, with a person or persons as a subject means something like we're (actively) joking, bantering, fooling around.

It's different from "Lesen macht (uns) Spaß" (with the person having fun being the object and the thing that is the actual fun being the subject, like "Reading is fun to us") or "wir haben Spaß" (we have fun), which could be what you mean here.

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  • Danke sehr! Which of your three suggestions do you think is most appropriate for formal writing? – user392289 Aug 16 '20 at 13:13
  • Also, I put immer before zusammen because of the time-manner-place rule. I know immer is an adverb of frequency but the rule doesn’t accommodate that so I tend to just file it under ‘time’. Is that totally wrong? – user392289 Aug 16 '20 at 13:20
  • The three suggestions are all fine, you can use whatever suits you acoording to what you'd like to emphasize. The third one strongly emphasizes zusammen, the first one emphasizes it a bit, the second one sounds most natural to me, but might be boring with the repetitions in your second sentence. – HalvarF Aug 16 '20 at 13:45
  • Thank you so much! – user392289 Aug 16 '20 at 14:04

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