Breakdown of Als er die Studie las, fand er den Fehler.
er
he
finden
to find
lesen
to read
der Fehler
the mistake
Questions & Answers about Als er die Studie las, fand er den Fehler.
Why does the second part of the sentence start with the verb fand instead of er?
The sentence starts with a subordinate clause (Als er die Studie las). In German, this entire clause occupies the first position. To keep the main verb in the strict second position, fand must come immediately after the comma, followed by the subject er.
Why is Als used here for "when" instead of Wenn?
Als is used specifically for a single, one-time event or block of time in the past. If you used Wenn here, it would mean "whenever" he read the study. Since finding the mistake was a specific, one-time event, Als is the correct choice.
Are the past tense forms las and fand normally used in spoken German?
These are simple past (Präteritum) forms of lesen and finden. While spoken German heavily prefers the spoken past (Perfekt) like hat gelesen and hat gefunden, fand is one of the few verbs you might still hear in everyday speech. Overall though, this sentence sounds more like a written text or a story.
How could I change this sentence to say "According to the study, he found the mistake" using laut?