Breakdown of Er hat sich beim Chef beschwert.
der Chef
the boss (male)
bei
at, near, with
sich beschweren
to complain (make a complaint)
Questions & Answers about Er hat sich beim Chef beschwert.
Why is there a sich in this sentence?
In German, the verb for "to complain" is sich beschweren. It is a reflexive verb, meaning it requires a reflexive pronoun, which feels a bit like saying "He complained himself." Since the subject is er (he), the pronoun is the third-person sich.
The translation says "to the boss," so why do we use beim instead of a word like "zum"?
When you complain to a person, company, or authority in German, you use the preposition bei (followed by the dative case), not zu. Because Chef is masculine, bei and the article dem contract into the single word beim.
Why doesn't the past participle beschwert have a "ge-" at the beginning?
Verbs that start with an inseparable prefix, such as the be- in beschweren, do not take the standard ge- prefix in the past participle. You simply add a -t to the end of the stem, giving you beschwert.
Could I change the word order and put sich at the end, right before the past participle?
No, in standard statements, the reflexive pronoun sich needs to come immediately after the conjugated verb (hat). Moving it later in the sentence (Er hat beim Chef sich beschwert) would sound unnatural.
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