Word
Der Doppelgänger, mit dem ich geredet hatte, war mir unbekannt.
Meaning
The doppelganger I had talked to was unknown to me.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Der Doppelgänger, mit dem ich geredet hatte, war mir unbekannt.
ich
I
sein
to be
haben
to have
mir
me / to me (dative)
Questions & Answers about Der Doppelgänger, mit dem ich geredet hatte, war mir unbekannt.
Why is it mir unbekannt instead of mich unbekannt?
The adjective unbekannt (unknown) is one of those adjectives that requires the dative case to show who is affected. Just like in English you say unknown to me, in German you use the dative pronoun mir.
Why do we use mit dem here to mean "with whom"?
This is a relative pronoun with a preposition. It refers back to Der Doppelgänger, which is a masculine noun. Because the preposition mit always forces the dative case, the masculine relative pronoun must be dem.
What tense is geredet hatte, and how is it formed?
This is the Plusquamperfekt (Past Perfect) tense, which translates to "had talked". You form it just like the regular perfect tense, but you use the simple past form of the helper verb. So instead of habe geredet (have talked), it is hatte geredet (had talked).
Why does the verb hatte come right before the comma?
The phrase mit dem ich geredet hatte is a relative clause, which acts like a subordinate clause. In German, the conjugated verb (here, hatte) is always pushed to the very end of a subordinate clause, right before the comma that separates it from the rest of the sentence.