Breakdown of Wir haben am neunten August gepackt.
haben
to have
wir
we
packen
to pack
der August
August
am
on the / at the
neunte
ninth
Questions & Answers about Wir haben am neunten August gepackt.
Why is it neunten with an -n at the end instead of just neunte?
When you say 'on the [date]' in German, you use am, which is short for an dem (a dative preposition). In the dative case, ordinal numbers get an -en ending. So 'the ninth' is der neunte, but 'on the ninth' is am neunten.
Does the month name (August) need a special ending here because it's in the dative case?
No, the names of the months don't change their endings here. Only the ordinal number before it (neunten) gets the dative -en ending.
Why is gepackt at the very end of the sentence?
This sentence uses the spoken past tense (the Perfekt). In German, the helping verb (here, haben) goes in the second position, and the past participle (gepackt) gets pushed all the way to the end of the sentence.
How do I know whether to say gepackt or gepacken?
packen (to pack) is a regular verb. Regular verbs form their past participle by adding ge- to the beginning and -t to the end of the verb stem (pack). Irregular verbs are the ones that usually end in -en in the past tense.
Learn Wir haben am neunten August gepackt and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free