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
der Zeuge
the witness
der Inspektor
the inspector
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"?
In German, the verb denken (to think) almost always pairs with the preposition an to mean "to think about" someone or something. This preposition requires the accusative case here, which is why the masculine article changes to den.
Why does Zeugen end in -n? Isn't there just one witness?
Yes, it is only one witness! Der Zeuge belongs to a special group of masculine nouns called "weak nouns" (you might remember this as n-declension). These nouns take an -n or -en ending in every case except the nominative singular. Since the witness is the object of the preposition here (accusative case), der Zeuge becomes den Zeugen.
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