Is an 'adverb' treated the same grammatically as a 'verb' when structuring a sentence?
Hello,

I understand that the ‘Im Garten grillen’ means ‘to have a barbecue in the garden’ and hence the word ‘HABEN’ does not need to be used in this particular phrase.

That is, however, seriously!!! confusing me when trying to structure the following sentence with the ‘verb in 2nd place rule’.

‘In summer we often have a barbecue in the garden’

Im Sommer [what goes in second place??? given that ‘HAVE’ is not in physically the sentence and there is no other verb??]

‘OFT’ is an adverb, so is this treated in the same way as a verb and hence place it in second place, hence;

‘Im Sommer oft im Garten grillen???????

Somehow this doesn’t seem correct, and hope someone maybe able to help??

Thanks

Laura

Question

Is an 'adverb' treated the same grammatically as a 'verb' when structuring a sentence?
Hello,

I understand that the ‘Im Garten grillen’ means ‘to have a barbecue in the garden’ and hence the word ‘HABEN’ does not need to be used in this particular phrase.

That is, however,  seriously!!! confusing me when trying to structure the following sentence with the ‘verb in 2nd place rule’.

‘In summer we often have a barbecue in the garden’

Im Sommer [what goes in second place??? given that ‘HAVE’ is not in physically the sentence and there is no other verb??]

‘OFT’ is an adverb, so is this treated in the same way as a verb and hence place it in second place, hence;

‘Im Sommer oft im Garten grillen???????

Somehow this doesn’t seem correct, and hope someone maybe able to help??

Thanks 

Laura

Answer

Basically "grillen" means the same as "to have a barbeque", it's just a single word to express the same action. It's like if you would have a word "to barbeque" (a verb) in English.

Also in your example you have "barbeque" as a direct application to the predicate. I'm not sure, if "application" is the right grammatical term, see also adjunction, addition, append(ing) and so on.

— Jane reads a book
Jane - Subject
reads - Predicate
a book - direct application

— Tom runs accross the street
Tom - Subject
runs - Predicate
street - indirect application

So the right ways to build your example could be:
— Im Sommer grillen wir oft im Garten.
— Wir grillen oft im Garten im Sommer.

If you have a complex predicate like "gemacht haben" (machen, Perfect Tense), you should place the alterable part of the predicate on the second place, and the rest goes to the end of the sentance.

— Wir machen Fehler.
(We make mistakes)
— Wir haben Fehler gemacht.
(We have made mistakes)

And adverb is something completely different. Adverb works like a description of some feture of a subject.

— It was incredibly tasty!
It was tasty. How tasty was it? Incredibly.

— Es war unglaublich lecker!
Es war lecker. Wie lecker war es? Unglaublich.

Answer

NO.
Rules  in German cannot be altered, very much like the Germans themselves. 
Wir grillen im Garten.
Oft grillen wir im Garten.
Wir grillien oft im Garten.
Im Sommer grillen wir oft im Garten.