Breakdown of Habt ihr den Kuchen probiert?
haben
to have
ihr
you (informal plural)
der Kuchen
the cake (simple, baked)
probieren
to try / to taste (to sample)
Questions & Answers about Habt ihr den Kuchen probiert?
Why is the past participle probiert instead of geprobiert?
Verbs that end in -ieren in their dictionary form (like probieren) are a special group. When making their past participle for the past tense, they do not get the ge- prefix at the beginning. You just take the stem (probier) and add a -t at the end to make probiert.
Why is probiert all the way at the end of the sentence?
In German, the spoken past tense (the Perfekt) acts like a frame around the sentence. The helping verb (habt) goes at the beginning to form a yes/no question, and the main action word in the past participle form (probiert) is always pushed to the very end.
Why does the sentence say den Kuchen instead of der Kuchen?
Kuchen (cake) is a masculine noun. Since the cake is the direct object of the sentence—it is the thing being tried—it needs to be in the accusative case. For masculine nouns, the word for "the" changes from der to den in the accusative.
Can I say Hast du instead of Habt ihr?
Yes, but it changes who you are talking to! Habt ihr uses the informal plural "you" (like "y'all" or "you guys"), meaning you are asking two or more people. If you are asking just one friend, you would say, Hast du den Kuchen probiert?
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