Word
Die Villa brannte, als der Inspektor an den Zeugen dachte.
Meaning
The villa was burning when the inspector thought about the witness.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Die Villa brannte, als der Inspektor an den Zeugen dachte.
brennen
to burn
als
when (past single event)
denken an
to think about
die Villa
the villa
Questions & Answers about Die Villa brannte, als der Inspektor an den Zeugen dachte.
How do the past tense verbs brannte and dachte work here?
They are both "mixed verbs." This means they combine features of regular and irregular verbs in the simple past (Präteritum). Like irregular verbs, they change their stem (brennen changes its vowel to brann-, and denken changes completely to dach-). But like regular verbs, they still take the standard past tense ending -te for the third person singular.
The English translation says "was burning." Is there a specific tense for that in German?
No, German doesn't have a "continuous" tense like English (was burning, were thinking). Both "burned" and "was burning" translate to the same simple past tense form: brannte. You just have to figure out the exact nuance from the context of the sentence.
Could I use wenn instead of als for "when" in this sentence?
No, you must use als here. In German, als is used for a single, specific event or condition in the past. Wenn is used for present and future events, or for recurring events in the past (meaning "whenever"). Since this describes a specific, one-time event, als is required.
Why is it an den Zeugen instead of über den Zeugen for "thought about the witness"?