Breakdown of Die Fluggesellschaft war erfolgreich, weil sie 1950 viele Flugzeuge gekauft hat.
sein
to be
sie
she
kaufen
to buy
haben
to have
viel
much / a lot
weil
because (subordinating)
das Flugzeug
the airplane
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
erfolgreich
successful / successfully
die Fluggesellschaft
the airline
Questions & Answers about Die Fluggesellschaft war erfolgreich, weil sie 1950 viele Flugzeuge gekauft hat.
Why is there no word for 'in' before 1950?
In English we say 'in 1950', but in German, you cannot use the preposition in directly before a year. You must either use the year completely by itself, like 1950 here, or use the phrase im Jahr 1950. Saying in 1950 is a common mistake for English speakers!
Why does the second part of the sentence end with gekauft hat instead of putting the verb right after sie?
The word weil (because) starts a subordinate clause. This type of clause forces the conjugated verb to the very end. Here, hat is the conjugated verb, so it gets pushed to the end, right after the past participle gekauft.
Is it okay to mix the simple past (war) and the present perfect (gekauft hat) in the same sentence?
Yes, this is very natural in German! Verbs like sein (to be), haben (to have), and modal verbs are almost always used in the simple past (war) because it sounds smoother. For most other verbs like kaufen (to buy), Germans prefer the present perfect (gekauft hat) in everyday communication.
How do you figure out the gender of a long compound word like Fluggesellschaft?
Fluggesellschaft is made of der Flug (the flight) and die Gesellschaft (the company or society). In German, the very last word in a compound noun always determines the gender of the whole word. Since it is die Gesellschaft, it becomes die Fluggesellschaft.
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