Word
Wo seid ihr ausgestiegen?
Meaning
Where did you get off?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Wo seid ihr ausgestiegen?
sein
to be
ihr
you (informal plural)
wo
where
aussteigen
to get off / to alight
Questions & Answers about Wo seid ihr ausgestiegen?
Why do we use seid (are) instead of a form of haben (to have) here?
In German, the spoken past tense usually uses haben as the helper verb. However, for verbs that show a change of location or a change of state, we use sein (to be) instead. Since getting off a bus or train is a change of location, we use seid (the ihr form of sein) as our helper verb.
Where does the past participle ausgestiegen come from?
It comes from aussteigen (to get off or exit), which is a separable verb. To make the past participle, the -ge- gets squeezed between the prefix (aus-) and the main verb. Also, because the verb is irregular, the vowel changes from ei to ie, giving us aus-ge-stiegen.
Why is ausgestiegen at the very end of the sentence?
This is a classic German word order rule. In the spoken past tense, the helper verb (here, seid) sits near the front of the sentence, and the past participle (ausgestiegen) gets pushed all the way to the end of the sentence.
Who exactly is being addressed with ihr?
ihr is the plural informal "you" (like "you guys" or "y'all"). You would ask this question if you are talking to two or more people you know well, like friends or family members, who just got off a train or bus.