Word
Wir hatten damals keinen Erfolg.
Meaning
We had no success back then.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Wir hatten damals keinen Erfolg.
Why is the verb hatten instead of just hatte?
hatten is the simple past form of haben (to have) for wir (we). Just like in the present tense where wir takes the -en ending (wir haben), the base past tense form hatte gets an -n ending to become wir hatten (we had).
Why do we use keinen to mean "no" here instead of nicht?
In German, when you want to say you have "no" or "not any" of a specific noun (like "no success"), you use the negative word kein. You use nicht to negate actions or adjectives (like saying "I did not win"). Since Erfolg (success) is a noun, we must use a form of kein.
Why does keinen end in -en?
The verb haben (and its past tense hatten) always requires the accusative case for its direct object, which is the thing being had. The word Erfolg is a masculine noun. In the accusative case, masculine words like kein take an -en ending, becoming keinen.
Could I put damals at the beginning of the sentence?