Breakdown of Ich habe am sechsten Dezember gefeiert.
ich
I
haben
to have
feiern
to celebrate
der Dezember
December
Questions & Answers about Ich habe am sechsten Dezember gefeiert.
Why does sechsten end in -en here instead of just being sechste?
It is because of the word am right before it! The word am is a combination of an + dem, which puts the date into the dative case. When an ordinal number (like the German word for "sixth") follows a dative word like dem, it has to take the -en ending.
Do we always use am to say "on" a specific date?
Yes! To say something happens "on" a specific day or date, you always use am (like am Montag or am sechsten Dezember). However, if you only wanted to say "in December" without giving a specific day, you would use im instead of am.
Why is the past tense verb gefeiert at the very end of the sentence?
This sentence uses the conversational past tense, called the Perfekt. A major rule for this tense is that the helping verb (here, habe) stays in the second position of the sentence, but the main action word (gefeiert) gets pushed all the way to the very end.
What is the base dictionary verb for gefeiert?