Breakdown of Der Professor wollte etwas schreiben, aber er hatte keine Kreide.
er
he
etwas
something
haben
to have
aber
but
kein
no, not any
schreiben
to write
wollen
to want
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Professor
the professor
die Kreide
the chalk
Questions & Answers about Der Professor wollte etwas schreiben, aber er hatte keine Kreide.
How would you apply the ver- prefix from this lesson's topic to the verb schreiben?
The prefix ver- often indicates making a mistake. If the professor made a mistake while writing, you would use the reflexive verb sich verschreiben (to make a slip of the pen). For example, you could say: Er hat sich verschrieben. (He made a writing mistake).
Why does the sentence use the simple past forms wollte and hatte instead of the Perfekt tense usually used in conversation?
Even in spoken German, where the Perfekt tense is normally preferred for the past, modal verbs like wollen and the basic verbs haben and sein are almost always used in the simple past (Präteritum). It sounds much more natural to say wollte and hatte than hat gewollt and hat gehabt.
Why doesn't the word aber push the verb to the end of the sentence?
The word aber (but) is a coordinating conjunction, which means it occupies "position zero" and does not change the standard word order. The subject er takes position 1, and the conjugated verb hatte takes its normal place in position 2.
Why do we use keine to negate the chalk instead of nicht?
In German, you use forms of kein to negate a noun that has no article (like Kreide in this sentence) or an indefinite article (ein/eine). The word nicht is used to negate verbs, adjectives, or nouns with a definite article (der/die/das) or a possessive pronoun.
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