Breakdown of Sie hatte das Hotel storniert, bevor wir am Gate waren.
sein
to be
sie
she
haben
to have
wir
we
das Hotel
the hotel
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
bevor
before
stornieren
to cancel (a booking, order, reservation)
das Gate
the gate
Questions & Answers about Sie hatte das Hotel storniert, bevor wir am Gate waren.
Why do we use hatte here instead of war for the Past Perfect?
We use hatte because the main verb is stornieren (to cancel), which takes haben in the perfect tenses. You only use war (the past tense of sein) for verbs that show a change of state or a motion from A to B, like gehen or ankommen.
Why doesn't the past participle storniert start with "ge-"?
Verbs that end in -ieren (like stornieren, studieren, fotografieren) are an exception when forming past participles. They never take the ge- prefix; you simply drop the -en and add a -t at the end.
Why is the verb waren at the very end of the sentence?
The word bevor (before) is a subordinating conjunction. It introduces a dependent clause, which means the conjugated verb (in this case, waren) must be pushed to the very end of its clause.
Why does the sentence use am Gate instead of just "an Gate"?
The word am is a contraction of the preposition an and the dative article dem. We use the dative case here to show a fixed location (answering the question "where?"). Since the English loanword Gate is neuter in German (das Gate), the dative article is dem, which combines with an to make am.
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