Questions & Answers about Wir sind spazieren gegangen.
Why does this sentence use sind instead of haben for the past tense?
In German, the past tense is usually formed with haben (to have). However, verbs that show a change of location or movement from one place to another, like gehen (to go), use sein (to be) as the helping verb. So, Germans literally say "We are gone" rather than "We have gone." Here, sind is the "we" form of sein.
Why are there two verbs at the end of the sentence, spazieren and gegangen?
The standard German phrase for "to go for a walk" is spazieren gehen. When you put this into the past tense, only the main action verb (gehen) changes into its past participle form (gegangen). The describing verb spazieren (to stroll) stays in its basic dictionary form and sits right in front of gegangen at the very end of the sentence.
Is gegangen a regular or irregular verb?
It is irregular! gegangen is the past participle of gehen (to go). Just like the English verb "go" changes completely to "gone" in the past tense, gehen changes to gegangen. Because it is such a common word, it is highly recommended to memorize it early on.
Could I just use the verb spazieren by itself without gegangen?
Yes, you can simply say Wir sind spaziert. Notice that it still uses sind because strolling involves movement! However, the combined phrase spazieren gehen (and its past tense spazieren gegangen) is the most natural and frequent way native speakers say "to go for a walk."
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