Breakdown of Ich glaube, dass der Professor die Passwörter vertauscht.
ich
I
glauben
to believe
das Passwort
the password
dass
that
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Professor
the professor
vertauschen
to mix up (swap by mistake)
Questions & Answers about Ich glaube, dass der Professor die Passwörter vertauscht.
How does the prefix ver- affect the meaning of vertauscht in this sentence?
The base verb is tauschen, which means to swap or exchange. The inseparable prefix ver- often indicates making a mistake or doing something incorrectly. Therefore, vertauschen means swapping things by accident, or mixing them up.
Why is the verb vertauscht placed at the very end of the sentence?
The sentence uses dass (that), which is a subordinating conjunction. It introduces a dependent clause and always forces the conjugated verb to move to the very end of its clause.
Since ver- is a prefix, would it ever separate from the verb in a main clause?
No, ver- is an inseparable prefix. Even if this weren't a dass clause and you just said the main sentence "He mixes up the passwords," it would remain attached as a single word: Er vertauscht die Passwörter.
How does the plural noun Passwörter get its ending?
Compound nouns take the gender and plural form of their last word. The base word here is das Wort (the word), whose plural is die Wörter. To make it plural, it adds an -er to the end and puts an umlaut over the o.
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