Breakdown of Wir wussten nichts von dem Streich, aber wir lachten viel.
lachen
to laugh
aber
but
wir
we
viel
much / a lot
Questions & Answers about Wir wussten nichts von dem Streich, aber wir lachten viel.
How is the simple past tense formed for wir lachten?
lachen (to laugh) is a regular (or "weak") verb. To form the simple past (Präteritum) for this lesson, you take the verb stem (lach-), add the past tense marker -t-, and then add the regular ending for wir, which is -en. Put together, you get wir lachten.
Is wussten also a regular verb in the simple past?
Not quite. wissen (to know) is a "mixed" verb. It acts a bit like a regular verb because it uses the past tense marker -t- and the ending -en (wuss-t-en). However, it acts like an irregular (or "strong") verb because its stem vowel changes from i to u (wissen -> wusste).
Why is it von dem Streich instead of von den Streich?
The preposition von (used here to mean "about") always forces the following noun into the dative case. Since Streich (prank) is a masculine noun (der Streich), the article changes to dem in the dative case.
Why doesn't the word aber push the verb lachten to the end of the sentence?