Breakdown of Seit wir verheiratet sind, wohnen wir in diesem Haus.
sein
to be
das Haus
the house
wohnen
to live
in
in
Questions & Answers about Seit wir verheiratet sind, wohnen wir in diesem Haus.
Why are both verbs in the present tense (sind and wohnen) when the English translation says "got married" and "have lived"?
In German, if an action or state started in the past and is still ongoing, you use the present tense with seit (since). English uses the present perfect ("have lived") or simple past ("got married"), but German simply says "Since we are married, we live in this house."
Why is the verb sind at the very end of the first clause?
The word seit is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent clause and forces the conjugated verb (sind) to the very end of that block of information, right before the comma.
Why does the second half of the sentence start with the verb (wohnen wir) instead of the subject (wir wohnen)?
German has a strict "verb second" rule for main clauses. The entire first clause (Seit wir verheiratet sind) counts as position one. To keep the main verb in position two, wohnen must come immediately after the comma.
Why does the sentence use diesem instead of dieses Haus?
The preposition in is a two-way preposition that can take either the accusative or dative case. Because we are talking about a fixed location (where they live) rather than movement towards a destination, it takes the dative case. Haus is a neuter noun, so the dative ending is -em.