Word
Er reist um die Welt, seitdem er in Rente ist.
Meaning
He has been traveling the world ever since he retired.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Er reist um die Welt, seitdem er in Rente ist.
Why does the German sentence use the present tense (reist and ist) when the English translation says "has been traveling" and "retired"?
In German, if an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense. He started traveling when his retirement began, and he is still traveling, so we use reist. Similarly, being retired is an ongoing state, so we use ist.
Why is the verb ist at the very end of the sentence?
The word seitdem (ever since) is a subordinating conjunction. This type of connecting word introduces a dependent clause and always kicks the conjugated verb (in this case, ist) to the very end of that clause.
Could I use seit instead of seitdem in this sentence?
Yes! When connecting two clauses, seit and seitdem mean the exact same thing and both send the verb to the end. You could say ... seit er in Rente ist and the meaning would not change at all. Using seitdem just sounds a bit more emphatic, like saying "ever since" instead of "since".
How does the phrase in Rente translate to "retired"?
The noun die Rente means "the pension" or "retirement". So the phrase in Rente sein literally means "to be in pension" or "to be in retirement", which is how Germans usually express that someone is retired.