Breakdown of Wenn wir damals einen Text getippt haben, war die Schreibmaschine sehr laut.
sein
to be
ein
a, an (eine)
sehr
very
haben
to have
wir
we
laut
loud, loudly
damals
back then
wenn
if / when (conditional, not a question word)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Text
the lines / the text
die Schreibmaschine
the typewriter
tippen
to type
Questions & Answers about Wenn wir damals einen Text getippt haben, war die Schreibmaschine sehr laut.
Wait, isn't als the word for "when" in the past? Why does this sentence use wenn?
You use als for a single event or continuous block of time in the past (like "when I was a child"). Here, wenn is used because typing a text was a repeated, habitual action. In the past tense, wenn essentially means "whenever" or "every time."
Why does the second part of the sentence start with the verb war?
The sentence starts with a subordinate clause (Wenn wir damals einen Text getippt haben). In German word order, this entire clause occupies position 1. Because the conjugated verb must always sit in position 2 in a main clause, war has to come immediately after the comma, pushing the subject die Schreibmaschine right after it.
Why is the first half in the spoken past tense (getippt haben) but the second half in the simple past (war)?
This mixture is extremely common in everyday German. People generally prefer the spoken past (Perfekt) for most action verbs like tippen. However, for the verb sein (to be), as well as haben and modal verbs, Germans almost always use the simple past (Präteritum) even in speech because it is much shorter and smoother to say.
What role does the word damals play in this sentence?
While you could technically leave it out, damals means "back then" or "at that time." Because wenn is so frequently used for present and future conditions (meaning "if" or "when"), adding damals helps immediately signal to the listener that you are describing a repeated scenario in the past.
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