Word
Damals hattet ihr einen Traum.
Meaning
Back then you guys had a dream.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Damals hattet ihr einen Traum.
ein
a, an (eine)
haben
to have
ihr
you (informal plural)
damals
back then
Questions & Answers about Damals hattet ihr einen Traum.
Why is the verb hattet here instead of just hatte?
hatte is the base past tense form for "had", but you have to add endings to match the subject. Since the subject is ihr (you plural / you guys), we add a -t to get hattet. Just like in the present tense (ihr habt), the ihr form in the past tense gets a -t at the end.
Why does the verb come before the subject (hattet ihr instead of ihr hattet)?
In German, the verb must always be the second idea in a standard sentence. Because we started this sentence with the time word Damals (Back then), the verb hattet must come right after it to stay in position two. The subject ihr then gets pushed to the third spot. If you started with the subject instead, it would be: Ihr hattet damals einen Traum.
Why is it einen Traum with an -en ending?
The verb haben (and its past tense form hattet) requires the accusative case because the thing you "have" is a direct object. The word Traum (dream) is a masculine noun. In the accusative case, the masculine word for "a" changes from ein to einen.
Can I use damals to just mean "yesterday"?