Breakdown of Der Erfolg war mir sehr wichtig.
sein
to be
sehr
very
wichtig
important
mir
me / to me (dative)
der Erfolg
the success
Questions & Answers about Der Erfolg war mir sehr wichtig.
Why do we use Der Erfolg instead of just Erfolg for "Success"?
In English, we usually drop "the" when talking about general concepts like "success" or "life". In German, these abstract nouns generally keep their definite article. Since Erfolg is a masculine noun, we use Der Erfolg.
How does the verb war work in this sentence?
war means "was". It is the simple past tense of sein (to be). Because Der Erfolg acts as a singular "he/it" subject, we use the 3rd-person singular form war. If we wanted to say "Success IS very important," we would use the present tense ist.
Why is the word mir used instead of ich or mich?
mir is the dative form of ich (I), and it means "to me" in this context. In German, when you express that something is important to someone, you simply use the dative case for the person. You don't need a separate German word for "to".
Why doesn't the adjective wichtig have an ending, like wichtige?
In German, adjectives only get extra endings when they come directly before a noun (like "an important success"). When the adjective comes later in the sentence to describe the subject after a verb like sein (or its past tense war), it stays in its basic, unchanged dictionary form.
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