Word
Ich bin gestern nach Spanien geflogen.
Meaning
I flew to Spain yesterday.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Ich bin gestern nach Spanien geflogen.
Why does this sentence use bin instead of habe?
In German, the past tense usually uses a form of haben (to have) as a helper verb. However, verbs that express a change of location or movement from A to B, like fliegen (to fly), use sein (to be). That is why we literally say I am flown (Ich bin... geflogen).
Why is geflogen at the very end of the sentence?
This is a strict rule in German. When you use a two-part verb structure like the past tense, the helper verb (bin) takes the second position in the sentence, and the past participle (geflogen) gets pushed to the very end.
Could I say Ich bin nach Spanien gestern geflogen instead?
It is much more natural to say gestern nach Spanien. In German, information about time (like gestern, meaning yesterday) almost always comes before information about a place or destination (like nach Spanien). A handy rule to remember is Time before Place.
Why do we use nach to say 'to Spain'?
When you are traveling to a city, country, or continent that does not use a word for 'the' before its name, you use the preposition nach. Since Spain is just Spanien, we use nach Spanien.
How do I know the past version of fliegen is geflogen?