Breakdown of Die Suppe war scharf und ich habe viel Wasser getrunken.
ich
I
sein
to be
und
and
trinken
to drink
das Wasser
the water
haben
to have
viel
much / a lot
die Suppe
the soup
scharf
spicy
Questions & Answers about Die Suppe war scharf und ich habe viel Wasser getrunken.
Why does the verb end in "-en" (getrunken) instead of "-t"?
Trinken (to drink) is an irregular (or "strong") verb. While regular verbs form their past participle with ge-...-t, strong verbs usually end in -en. They also often change their middle vowel, which is why the "i" in trinken turns into a "u" in getrunken.
The first part uses war (was) but the second part uses the Perfekt tense (habe ... getrunken). Why mix them?
In spoken German, the Perfekt tense is the standard way to talk about the past. However, the verbs sein (to be) and haben (to have) are common exceptions. Even in everyday speech, it is much more natural to use their simple past forms (war and hatte) alongside other verbs in the Perfekt.
I thought scharf meant "sharp". Why does it mean "spicy" here?
You are exactly right that scharf literally means "sharp" (like a knife). However, when you use it to describe food, it is the standard and most common word for "spicy" or "hot" in German.
Does the word und change the word order in the second half of the sentence?
No, it doesn't! Und (and) is a friendly conjunction that doesn't mess with word order. It takes up "position zero" in the sentence, which means the subject (ich) takes position 1, allowing the helping verb (habe) to stay securely in its normal spot at position 2.
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