Breakdown of Das Feuer hat lange gebrannt.
haben
to have
lange
for a long time, long
das Feuer
the fire
brennen
to burn
Questions & Answers about Das Feuer hat lange gebrannt.
Why is the past participle gebrannt instead of "gebrennt"?
The infinitive is brennen (to burn). Usually, a past participle ending in -t keeps the same vowel as the infinitive. However, brennen is a "mixed" verb. It gets the standard ge- and -t parts, but its stem vowel changes from "e" to "a".
Are there a lot of these "mixed" verbs like brennen?
There is only a small group of them! Other common examples you will see include kennen (to know), which becomes gekannt, and denken (to think), which becomes gedacht.
The English translation says "for a long time". Why isn't there a word for "for" in the German sentence?
In German, you usually don't need a preposition like "für" when talking about how long something lasts. The single adverb lange directly translates to the whole phrase "for a long time".
Why is gebrannt at the very end of the sentence?
This is a quick reminder of how the past tense works in German. The helping verb (hat) takes the second position in the sentence, and it sends the past participle (gebrannt) to the very end, creating a "bracket" around the rest of the sentence.