Breakdown of Er hatte keinen Beweis, aber er leugnet die Schuld.
er
he
haben
to have
aber
but
kein
no, not any
der Beweis
the piece of evidence
leugnen
to deny
die Schuld
the guilt
Questions & Answers about Er hatte keinen Beweis, aber er leugnet die Schuld.
This lesson is about using wollen to express a claim. How could we rewrite his denial using wollen?
You could say Er will unschuldig sein (He claims to be innocent) or Er will die Tat nicht begangen haben (He claims not to have committed the deed). In these cases, wollen shows that the subject is making a personal claim about themselves, which fits perfectly with the idea of denying guilt!
Why does the sentence switch from the past tense (hatte) to the present tense (leugnet)?
The tenses reflect two different timeframes. Er hatte keinen Beweis describes a situation in the past (he didn't have proof at the time of the event or investigation). However, er leugnet die Schuld is in the present tense because his denial is ongoing right now.
Is there a difference between leugnen and verneinen? Both can translate to denying something.
Yes! Leugnen is a strong word used for denying facts, accusations, or guilt, often implying that the person might actually be lying or hiding something. Verneinen simply means to answer no to a question or to negate a statement, without the heavy moral or legal weight of leugnen.
Why is it keinen Beweis instead of nicht einen Beweis?
As a quick refresher: in German, when you negate a noun that has an indefinite article (a or an) or no article at all, you almost always use kein instead of nicht. Since the word for proof is der Beweis, the accusative masculine form used here is keinen Beweis (literally: no proof).
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