Breakdown of Der alte Bauer hat gesagt, dass das Schloss verflucht war.
sein
to be
haben
to have
sagen
to say
alt
old
Questions & Answers about Der alte Bauer hat gesagt, dass das Schloss verflucht war.
Why is it verflucht war instead of verflucht wurde?
This is the stative passive (Zustandspassiv) in the simple past. It uses war (the past tense of sein) plus the past participle verflucht to describe a condition that already existed. It means the castle was in a cursed state. If the farmer had used wurde verflucht (the action or dynamic passive), it would mean the action was happening right then: the castle was being cursed by someone.
Why is war at the very end of the sentence?
The word dass (that) is a subordinating conjunction, which means it introduces a dependent clause. In German dependent clauses, the conjugated verb is always kicked to the very end. Since war is the conjugated verb for the castle, it must go after the past participle verflucht.
Why does the adjective in Der alte Bauer end in -e instead of -er?
Because it follows the definite article Der, the adjective takes a weak ending. The masculine gender is already clearly shown by the article Der, so the adjective only needs a simple -e in the nominative case.
I thought Bauer was an n-declension noun. Shouldn't it have an -n at the end?