Word
Wir sind von der Reise zurückgekommen.
Meaning
We came back from the trip.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Wir sind von der Reise zurückgekommen.
sein
to be
wir
we
von
from, of / by (agent in passive clauses)
die Reise
the trip / the journey
Questions & Answers about Wir sind von der Reise zurückgekommen.
Why does the sentence use sind (are) when the English translation uses the past tense 'came'?
In German, the spoken past tense (the Perfekt) is formed with a helping verb plus the past participle. While most verbs use haben (to have), verbs that show movement from one place to another—like coming back (zurückkommen)—use sein (to be). So literally, German says 'We are come back'.
Why is the -ge- stuck in the middle of zurückgekommen?
The base verb is zurückkommen (to come back), which is a separable verb. When making the past participle of a separable verb, the -ge- gets squeezed between the prefix (zurück-) and the main verb (kommen).
Reise (trip) is a feminine noun. Why does the sentence say der Reise instead of die Reise?
The word von (from) is a dative preposition, which means the noun following it must be in the dative case. In the dative case, the feminine article die changes to der.
Could I use the word aus instead of von to mean 'from' here?
No, you need to use von here. The preposition aus is used when you are physically coming out of an enclosed space or a country. For an event or an experience like a trip, you always use von.