Breakdown of Wenn wir damals mit dem Auto gefahren sind, haben wir immer eine Kassette gehört.
sein
to be
ein
a, an (eine)
haben
to have
das Auto
the car
Questions & Answers about Wenn wir damals mit dem Auto gefahren sind, haben wir immer eine Kassette gehört.
Why do we use Wenn here instead of Als for the word "when"?
In German, you use als for a single, one-time event in the past. You use wenn for repeated or habitual events in the past, meaning "whenever." The words damals (back then) and immer (always) show us that this car trip happened multiple times, so we must use wenn.
Why does the second half of the sentence start with the verb haben instead of wir?
The entire first part of the sentence starting with Wenn is a subordinate clause that takes up the first position of the whole sentence. Because the conjugated verb in a German main clause must always take the second position, the verb haben comes immediately after the comma, pushing the subject wir right after it.
Why say mit dem Auto gefahren instead of using a verb for "traveled"?
While English speakers often say "traveled by car," the German verb reisen (to travel) is usually reserved for big vacations. For everyday trips in a vehicle, you use fahren (to drive / to go). To say how you went, you use the preposition mit plus the dative case: mit dem Auto (literally "with the car").
Both clauses use the Perfekt (spoken past) tense. Is it normal to use this tense for habitual actions in the past?