Breakdown of Er sagt, jemand habe die Ursache für den Vorfall schon gefunden.
er
he
haben
to have
sagen
to say
finden
to find
für
for
schon
already
jemand
someone
die Ursache
the cause
der Vorfall
the incident
Questions & Answers about Er sagt, jemand habe die Ursache für den Vorfall schon gefunden.
Why use habe instead of hat here?
habe is the Konjunktiv I (Present Subjunctive) form of haben. We use it here because of Er sagt (He says). It shows that we are reporting someone else's statement, rather than confirming it as an absolute fact ourselves.
Why is habe the second word in the second part of the sentence, instead of going to the very end?
Normally, a reported statement would use dass (that), which pushes the verb to the end: Er sagt, dass jemand die Ursache schon gefunden habe. However, in German, you can drop dass. When you do, the reported sentence uses normal main clause word order, putting the conjugated verb (habe) in the second position after the subject (jemand).
How does habe ... gefunden translate to a past tense meaning if habe is present subjunctive?
To report an event that already happened, you use the reported version of the spoken past (Perfekt) tense. The normal Perfekt is hat ... gefunden. To make it reported speech, you simply change the helping verb hat into its Konjunktiv I form, habe.
Why is it für den Vorfall instead of using the genitive case for "the cause of the incident"?
While you could use the genitive case (die Ursache des Vorfalls), it is very common and natural in German to use die Ursache für (the cause for). The preposition für always forces the following noun into the accusative case. Since Vorfall (incident) is masculine, it becomes den Vorfall.
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