Breakdown of Er nannte den Preis des Friedens, ohne dass er die Gefahr kannte.
er
he
kennen
to know (somebody/something)
nennen
to name
die Gefahr
the danger
der Preis
the price
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
ohne dass
without (+ subordinate clause)
der Friede
the peace
Questions & Answers about Er nannte den Preis des Friedens, ohne dass er die Gefahr kannte.
Why does der Frieden become des Friedens with an -ns ending?
The noun Frieden (peace) belongs to a special group of masculine nouns with a mixed n-declension. Like standard n-declension nouns, they take an -n or -en ending in most cases, but in the genitive case, they also add an -s, becoming des Friedens. Other common words in this tricky group are der Name (des Namens) and der Gedanke (des Gedankens).
Both nannte and kannte end in -te but have a vowel change. What kind of verbs are these?
These are mixed verbs. They follow the pattern of regular (weak) verbs by adding a -te ending to form the simple past (Präteritum), but they also act like irregular (strong) verbs by changing their stem vowel from e to a. So, nennen (to name) becomes nannte, and kennen (to know) becomes kannte.
Why does the German sentence use ohne dass er... kannte instead of an infinitive phrase?
Both are actually correct here! Because the subject is the same in both halves of the sentence (er), you could use the infinitive construction ohne... zu and say ..., ohne die Gefahr zu kennen (without knowing the danger). Using the conjunction ohne dass (literally 'without that') is simply an alternative way to express this, and it pushes the conjugated verb kannte to the end of the subordinate clause.
Could I use wusste instead of kannte to say he 'knew' the danger?
No, kennen is the correct verb here. In German, you use kennen (past tense: kannte) when expressing familiarity with a noun, such as a person, a place, or a specific concept like die Gefahr (the danger). You use wissen (past tense: wusste) for knowing factual information, which is usually followed by a subordinate clause like Er wusste, dass es gefährlich war (He knew that it was dangerous).
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