Breakdown of Die Astronauten wussten, dass dieses Raumschiff am sichersten war.
sein
to be
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
sicher
sure / certain
wissen
to know (a fact)
dass
that
am
the most (superlative marker)
der Astronaut
the astronaut
das Raumschiff
the spaceship
Questions & Answers about Die Astronauten wussten, dass dieses Raumschiff am sichersten war.
Why do we say am sichersten instead of just using sichersten?
When an adjective describes a noun but stands alone after the verb "to be" (like war here), German uses the am ...-sten form for the superlative. sicher means "safe", so am sichersten is how you say "the safest" in this sentence structure.
Does the adjective sicher need an umlaut in the superlative?
No, it is completely regular! To make the superlative, you just take the base adjective sicher and add -sten to the end. Unlike some short adjectives (like kalt becoming am kältesten), sicher does not take an umlaut.
Why is the verb war at the very end of the sentence?
The word dass (meaning "that") creates a subordinate clause. In German, subordinate clauses always push their conjugated verb to the very end of that section. Here, that verb is war (was).
Why is the past tense of "knew" translated as wussten and not kannten?
wussten is the simple past of wissen, which is used when you know a fact or a piece of information (like knowing that the spaceship was safe). The other word for "to know" is kennen (past tense kannten), but that is only used for being familiar with a person, place, or thing.
Why does "this spaceship" translate to dieses Raumschiff instead of dieser or diese?
The word for spaceship is neuter (das Raumschiff), and here it is the subject of the second part of the sentence, which means it is in the nominative case. For neuter nouns in the nominative case, the word "this" takes the ending -es, making it dieses.
Learn Die Astronauten wussten, dass dieses Raumschiff am sichersten war 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