Question 1

Why does the German sentence use war to mean "had" expired?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 2

Why is war placed after abgelaufen at the very end of the sentence?

Accepted Answer

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).

Question 3

Why does the sentence use two different past tenses: hatte and war abgelaufen?

Accepted Answer

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.

Question 4

The English translation says "He was afraid", but doesn't hatte mean "had"?

Accepted Answer

Exactly! While in English you use the verb "to be" for feelings like being afraid, being hungry, or being cold, German often uses haben (to have) with a noun. The German phrase is Angst haben (literally "to have fear"). So Er hatte Angst translates to "He was afraid" but literally means "He had fear."

Er hatte Angst, weil sein Visum abgelaufen war.

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