Breakdown of Wir haben vorgestern ohne dich gearbeitet.
arbeiten
to work
haben
to have
wir
we
dich
you (singular, informal)
ohne
without
vorgestern
the day before yesterday
Questions & Answers about Wir haben vorgestern ohne dich gearbeitet.
Why are haben and gearbeitet separated from each other?
This is the standard structure for the German spoken past tense (the Perfekt). The helper verb (haben) stays in the normal second position, while the past participle (gearbeitet) gets pushed to the very end of the sentence.
Why does gearbeitet end in '-et' instead of just '-t'?
Regular past participles usually just end in '-t' (like gemacht). However, the stem of arbeiten is arbeit-, which already ends in a 't'. To make it pronounceable, German adds an extra 'e' before the ending, making it gearbeitet.
Why is it dich instead of du?
The word ohne (without) is a preposition that always forces the following word into the accusative case. The accusative form of du (you) is dich, so 'without you' must be ohne dich.
Is vorgestern a combination of two words?
Yes! It is made of vor (before) and gestern (yesterday). Put together, it literally means 'before yesterday', which is how Germans say 'the day before yesterday'.
Does this sentence translate to 'We have worked' or 'We worked'?
It can mean both. While it looks structurally like the English 'We have worked', German uses this tense (the Perfekt) as the standard way to talk about the past in everyday conversation. Here, 'We worked' is the most natural English translation.
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