Breakdown of Wenn mein Vater früher ein Geschenk gesucht hat, hat er irgendwo eine Schallplatte gekauft.
ein
a, an (eine)
er
he
kaufen
to buy
haben
to have
suchen
to look for
mein
my
der Vater
the father
das Geschenk
the gift
früher
in the past
wenn
if / when (conditional, not a question word)
irgendwo
somewhere
die Schallplatte
the vinyl record
Questions & Answers about Wenn mein Vater früher ein Geschenk gesucht hat, hat er irgendwo eine Schallplatte gekauft.
Why is wenn used here instead of als, since the sentence is about the past?
In German, you use als for a single, one-time event in the past. However, because this sentence describes a repeated or habitual action (every time he looked for a gift), we must use wenn. Think of it as meaning "whenever".
Doesn't früher usually mean "earlier"?
Yes, it is the comparative form of früh (early). But it is also widely used as an adverb to simply mean "in the past" or "back in the day". Here, it helps emphasize that this was a regular habit.
Why is the conjugated verb hat at the very end of the first clause?
wenn is a subordinating conjunction. This means it creates a dependent clause and kicks the conjugated verb (in this case, the helper verb hat) to the very end of that clause, right before the comma.
Why does the second part of the sentence start with hat er instead of er hat?
This is because of the "verb second" rule in German. The entire wenn clause takes up the first position of the overall sentence. To keep the main verb in the second position, hat must come immediately after the comma, swapping places with the subject er.
How does the word irgendwo get its meaning of "somewhere"?
You can add the prefix irgend- to many question words to make them indefinite or unspecified. Just like wo means "where" and irgendwo means "somewhere", you can also say irgendwann (sometime) or irgendwer (someone).
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