Word
Nachdem sie die Pflanzen gegossen hatte, ging sie ins Büro.
Meaning
After she had watered the plants, she went to the office.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Nachdem sie die Pflanzen gegossen hatte, ging sie ins Büro.
sie
she
in
in
haben
to have
das Büro
the office
Questions & Answers about Nachdem sie die Pflanzen gegossen hatte, ging sie ins Büro.
Why is hatte gegossen used in the first part, but ging in the second?
The word nachdem (after) requires a strict sequence of tenses to show that one action was completely finished before the next one started. Because the main action ging (went) is in the simple past tense, the earlier action must be in the past perfect tense (hatte ... gegossen).
Why is the helping verb hatte at the very end of the first clause?
Nachdem is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent clause and pushes the conjugated verb—in this case, the helping verb hatte—to the very end of that clause, right before the comma.
Why does the second part start with ging sie instead of sie ging?
In German, the entire nachdem clause counts as the first position of the overall sentence. Because the verb in a main clause must always take the second position, the verb ging comes immediately after the comma, pushing the subject sie to the third position.
Why do we use ins Büro here instead of im Büro?