Breakdown of Wir mussten streng sein und die Kinder durften keine Schokolade essen.
sein
to be
das Kind
the child
und
and
kein
no, not any
wir
we
essen
to eat
müssen
to have to, must
dürfen
to be allowed to, may
die Schokolade
the chocolate
streng
strict
Questions & Answers about Wir mussten streng sein und die Kinder durften keine Schokolade essen.
Why do mussten and durften not have umlauts, unlike their present tense forms müssen and dürfen?
When forming the simple past (Präteritum) of modal verbs, you drop the umlaut. So the base past forms become musste and durfte. Since the subjects here are wir (we) and die Kinder (the children, both plural), we add the plural ending -n to make mussten and durften.
Why are the verbs sein and essen at the very end of their respective clauses?
In German, when you use a modal verb, the conjugated modal verb takes the second position, and the main action verb (sein or essen) gets pushed to the very end in its dictionary (infinitive) form. The word und (and) connects two independent sentences, so this 'modal in second position, main verb at the end' rule applies to both halves independently.
Why does the second part use keine instead of nicht to say the children couldn't eat chocolate?
How exactly does durften keine translate to 'weren't allowed to'?
The verb dürfen means 'to be allowed to' or 'may'. In the simple past, durften means 'were allowed to'. By adding the negative word keine, the phrase literally means the children 'were allowed to eat no chocolate', which sounds much more natural in English as 'weren't allowed to eat chocolate'.
Learn Wir mussten streng sein und die Kinder durften keine Schokolade essen 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