Breakdown of Seitdem sie das Haus gekauft haben, wohnen sie hier.
hier
here
das Haus
the house
kaufen
to buy
wohnen
to live
haben
to have
sie
they
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
seitdem
since
Questions & Answers about Seitdem sie das Haus gekauft haben, wohnen sie hier.
Why is the helping verb haben at the very end of the first clause?
The word seitdem (ever since) is a subordinating conjunction. This means it kicks the conjugated verb in its clause all the way to the end. Here, the action is in the spoken past tense, so the conjugated helping verb haben is pushed behind the past participle gekauft.
Why does the second half of the sentence start with the verb wohnen?
This is the classic verb-second rule in action! The entire first clause (Seitdem sie das Haus gekauft haben) acts as the first block of information. To keep the main clause's verb in the second position, wohnen must come immediately after the comma, before the subject sie.
The English translation says "have been living." Why does the German sentence just use the present tense wohnen?
When an action started in the past and is still ongoing today, German simply uses the present tense. While English requires a complex tense like "have been living", German literally says "they live here" and lets the word seitdem explain that the action started in the past.
Could I just use seit instead of seitdem in this sentence?
Yes, you can! When introducing a full subordinate clause, seit and seitdem are interchangeable and both send the conjugated verb to the end. Seitdem just sounds a bit more emphatic, similar to "ever since" compared to "since".
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