Word
Er hatte Angst, weil sein Visum abgelaufen war.
Meaning
He was afraid because his visa had expired.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Er hatte Angst, weil sein Visum abgelaufen war.
sein
to be
er
he
Angst haben
to be afraid
weil
because (subordinating)
Questions & Answers about Er hatte Angst, weil sein Visum abgelaufen war.
Why does the German sentence use war to mean "had" expired?
In English, we always use "had" to build the Past Perfect tense. But in German, verbs that describe a change of state or motion use sein (to be) as their helping verb instead of haben. Because ablaufen (to expire) describes a change of state, it takes sein. To make it Past Perfect, we simply use the simple past form of the helping verb, which is war.
Why is war placed after abgelaufen at the very end of the sentence?
The word weil (because) is a subordinating conjunction, which means it kicks the conjugated verb to the very end of the clause. In the Past Perfect tense, the helping verb (war) is the conjugated part, so it has to jump to the end, landing right after the past participle (abgelaufen).
Why does the sentence use two different past tenses: hatte and war abgelaufen?
The Past Perfect tense (Plusquamperfekt) is used to talk about something that happened further back in the past than another past event. First, his visa expired (war abgelaufen). Later, as a result, he was afraid (hatte Angst). Using the Past Perfect shows exactly which event happened first.
The English translation says "He was afraid", but doesn't hatte mean "had"?