Breakdown of Die Königin ritt zum Schloss.
zum
to the (zu + dem)
das Schloss
the castle
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
die Königin
the queen
reiten
to ride
Questions & Answers about Die Königin ritt zum Schloss.
Why does ritt look so different from its infinitive, and why is there no past tense ending?
The infinitive is reiten (to ride). It is a strong (irregular) verb, so instead of adding a standard -te ending for the simple past, it changes its stem vowel from ei to i. In the simple past, strong verbs never take an ending for the 1st and 3rd person singular (ich and er/sie/es), which is why die Königin (she) simply gets ritt.
If the subject changes to a plural, like 'we', does the verb stay ritt?
No, strong verbs do take endings for plural subjects in the simple past! You keep the changed stem (ritt-) and add the standard plural endings. 'We rode' becomes wir ritten, 'you all rode' is ihr rittet, and 'they rode' is sie ritten.
Would you use ritt in a normal spoken conversation?
Probably not. In everyday speech, Germans usually prefer the conversational past (Perfekt) and would say Die Königin ist zum Schloss geritten. The simple past (Präteritum) is mainly used in writing, like books, articles, or fairy tales, which perfectly fits a sentence about a queen riding to a castle!
Why is it zum Schloss instead of zu das Schloss?
The preposition zu (to) always requires the dative case. The noun Schloss (castle) is neuter (das Schloss), and its dative article is dem. In German, zu and dem are almost always combined into the contraction zum.
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