Breakdown of Obwohl er erschöpft war, trainierte er hart, sodass er die Medaille gewonnen hat.
sein
to be
er
he
haben
to have
gewinnen
to win
obwohl
although
trainieren
to train
hart
hard, tough
sodass
so that (as a result)
erschöpft
exhausted
die Medaille
the medal
Questions & Answers about Obwohl er erschöpft war, trainierte er hart, sodass er die Medaille gewonnen hat.
Why is sodass written as one word here, and could I split it?
Yes, you can split it! You could write er trainierte so hart, dass er die Medaille gewonnen hat (he trained so hard that...). When written as one word (sodass), it just means "so that" and introduces the overall result. When split, so emphasizes the adjective (hart) in the main clause, and dass introduces the result. Both are correct and mean almost exactly the same thing in this context.
What does sodass do to the word order in its clause?
Because sodass is a subordinating conjunction, it sends the conjugated verb to the very end of its clause. In this case, the conjugated helping verb hat is pushed all the way to the end, landing after the past participle gewonnen.
Why does the middle clause start with the verb trainierte instead of the subject er?
Remember the golden rule of German main clauses: the conjugated verb must be in position two. The entire first subordinate clause (Obwohl er erschöpft war) counts as position one. To keep the verb in position two, trainierte must come immediately after the comma, pushing the subject er to the other side of the verb.
Why does the sentence use the simple past (trainierte) in the middle, but the perfect tense (gewonnen hat) at the end?
It is quite common in German to mix these two past tenses. The simple past (Präteritum) of trainieren sounds a bit smoother here for describing a continuous background action or a process. The perfect tense (Perfekt) for winning the medal emphasizes the final, completed result of that training. You could also absolutely use the perfect tense for both if you were speaking casually: hat er hart trainiert, sodass er...
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