Breakdown of Er hat die Familie fotografiert.
er
he
haben
to have
die Familie
the family
fotografieren
to photograph
Questions & Answers about Er hat die Familie fotografiert.
Why doesn't the past participle fotografiert start with ge-?
Verbs that end in -ieren in their basic infinitive form (like fotografieren) are an exception in the past tense. They never get a ge- at the beginning of their past participle. You just drop the -en and add a -t at the end.
The English translation says "took pictures of", but I don't see the German words for "took" or "pictures"?
In German, you generally don't say "take a picture" using the verb for "take" (nehmen). Instead, you just use the single verb fotografieren (to photograph). The sentence literally translates to "He has photographed the family."
Why is fotografiert all the way at the end of the sentence?
This is the standard word order for the spoken past tense (Perfekt). The helping verb (here, hat) takes the second position in the sentence, and it kicks the past participle (fotografiert) to the very end.
Is die Familie in the nominative or accusative case here?
It is in the accusative case because the family is the direct object (the group receiving the action of being photographed). The word for "the" with feminine nouns (die) stays exactly the same in both the nominative and accusative cases, so it looks unchanged here.
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