Breakdown of Er hat das Geheimnis gewusst.
er
he
haben
to have
wissen
to know (a fact)
das Geheimnis
the secret
Questions & Answers about Er hat das Geheimnis gewusst.
The infinitive of 'to know' is wissen. Why does the past participle gewusst have a 'u' and end in '-t'?
This is a 'mixed' past participle. It mixes the rules of regular verbs (which surround the verb with ge- and -t) with the rules of irregular verbs (which change their core vowel). Here, the vowel 'i' from wissen changes to 'u' to make gewusst.
Why does the translation say 'He knew' instead of 'He has known'?
German usually prefers the Perfekt tense (using a helper verb like hat and a past participle like gewusst) to talk about the past in everyday spoken language. Even though it literally means 'He has known', the most natural English translation is simply 'He knew'.
Why is gewusst at the very end of the sentence?
This is the standard word order when talking about the past! The helper verb (hat) takes the normal second position in the sentence, while the past participle (gewusst) is always pushed to the very end.
I learned another word for 'to know': kennen. Why do we use a form of wissen here?
German has two verbs for 'to know'. wissen is used for knowing facts or information, like a secret (das Geheimnis). kennen is used when you are familiar with a person, place, or object. Because a secret is a piece of information, gewusst is the right choice.
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