Breakdown of Die Leute sangen ein Lied und tranken Wein.
ein
a, an (eine)
und
and
trinken
to drink
die Leute
the people
singen
to sing
das Lied
the song
der Wein
the wine
Questions & Answers about Die Leute sangen ein Lied und tranken Wein.
How do we form the simple past tense for the verbs singen and trinken in this sentence?
Both singen (to sing) and trinken (to drink) are irregular (strong) verbs. Just like their English equivalents (sing/sang, drink/drank), they change their stem vowel from i to a in the simple past (Präteritum) tense, becoming sang- and trank-. Because the subject is plural, we add the plural ending -en to get sangen and tranken.
Does the subject Die Leute always take a plural verb?
Yes, die Leute (the people) is a plural-only noun in German. That is why the verbs take the plural -en ending. If you needed to speak about a single person, you would have to use a different word entirely, such as der Mensch or die Person.
Why is there no article in front of Wein?
German leaves out the article before uncountable nouns when speaking about them in a general sense, exactly as English does. Because they are drinking wine in general rather than a specific glass or brand, it is simply Wein. If they drank a specific wine, it would be einen Wein in the accusative case.
Why is the verb tranken right after und? Doesn't und push verbs to the end?
The word und is a coordinating conjunction, meaning it connects two normal main sentences without changing their word order. The subject sie (they) is simply left out in the second half because it is already known. If we put it back in, the verb stays in its normal second position: und sie tranken Wein.
Learn Die Leute sangen ein Lied und tranken Wein 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