Breakdown of Nachdem die Verwechslung passiert war, war es mir unangenehm.
sein
to be
es
it
mir
me / to me (dative)
passieren
to happen
nachdem
after
die Verwechslung
the mix-up
unangenehm
unpleasant
Questions & Answers about Nachdem die Verwechslung passiert war, war es mir unangenehm.
Why is it mir (dative) here instead of mich or ich?
This ties directly into our current lesson! The adjective unangenehm (awkward, uncomfortable, unpleasant) belongs to a group of adjectives that require the dative case to show who is experiencing the feeling. You are literally saying 'it was unpleasant to me', so ich becomes the dative mir.
Why does the first part of the sentence use passiert war instead of the normal past tense?
The conjunction nachdem (after) tells us this action was completely finished before the next part of the sentence happened. Because the main feeling in the second half is in the simple past (war), the earlier action needs the past perfect tense (Plusquamperfekt), which translates to 'had happened'.
If the English translation is 'had happened', why does the German use war instead of hatte?
In German, verbs that describe a change of state or motion use sein (to be) as their helping verb instead of haben (to have). The verb passieren is one of these. So, to form the past perfect, German uses the past tense of sein (war) plus the past participle (passiert).
Why does the second half of the sentence start with the verb war instead of es?
In a German main clause, the verb always takes the second position. The entire first clause (Nachdem die Verwechslung passiert war) counts as position number one. Therefore, the verb war has to come immediately after the comma to take the second position, pushing the subject es right after the verb.
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