Breakdown of Nachdem sie die Pflanzen gegossen hatte, ging sie ins Büro.
sie
she
in
in
haben
to have
das Büro
the office
gehen
to go
die Pflanze
the plant
nachdem
after
gießen
to water
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?
Ins is a contraction of in das. We use the accusative case here because the verb implies a change of location toward a destination (she went into the office). If she were already inside the office doing an activity, we would use the dative case im Büro (in dem Büro).
What is the base verb for gegossen?
The infinitive is gießen, which means to pour or to water. It is an irregular (strong) verb, which is why it changes its stem vowel and ends in -en to form the past participle gegossen.
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