Breakdown of Er hat die Firma gewechselt, als er die Arbeit verloren hat.
er
he
haben
to have
die Arbeit
the work
verlieren
to lose
als
when (past single event)
wechseln
to change
die Firma
the company
Questions & Answers about Er hat die Firma gewechselt, als er die Arbeit verloren hat.
Why does the sentence use als for "when" instead of wenn?
In German, als is used specifically for a single, one-time event that happened in the past. Since losing this job was a one-time past event, we use als. If it were a repeated event in the past meaning "whenever", you would use wenn.
Why is the helper verb hat at the very end of the sentence?
The word als is a subordinating conjunction. This type of connecting word kicks the conjugated verb to the very end of its clause. Because the second part of the sentence is in the perfect tense, the conjugated helper verb hat must go all the way to the end, even after the past participle verloren.
The English translation says "companies" in the plural, so why does the German use the singular die Firma?
In English, we talk about changing between two things, so we say we changed "companies". In German, the focus is on replacing your current workplace, so you use the singular phrase die Firma wechseln to mean changing jobs or companies.
Why does the German sentence use the perfect tense (hat gewechselt and hat verloren) for actions that are completely finished?
While English uses the simple past for finished events (changed, lost), spoken German strongly prefers the perfect tense to talk about the past. In conversational German, you will almost always use the perfect tense for past events rather than the simple past.
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