Breakdown of Wer hat gestern gefegt und gestaubsaugt?
und
and
haben
to have
wer
who
gestern
yesterday
fegen
to sweep
staubsaugen
to vacuum
Questions & Answers about Wer hat gestern gefegt und gestaubsaugt?
Why is the past participle gestaubsaugt instead of staubgesaugt?
The verb staubsaugen is a bit of an exception. Because it was created from the noun der Staubsauger (the vacuum cleaner) rather than combining a prefix with a verb, it is usually treated as a standard inseparable verb, giving us hat gestaubsaugt. However, some people do treat it as separable, so you might also hear hat staubgesaugt in everyday speech. Both are accepted!
How would I use the verbs in this sentence to say "It needs to be swept and vacuumed" using the gehören structure from our current lesson?
You would say: Es gehört gefegt und gestaubsaugt. Using gehören + past participle is a very common, conversational alternative to the standard passive with a modal verb (Es muss gefegt und gestaubsaugt werden) to express that a chore strongly needs to be done.
Why is there only one hat for two different actions?
When linking two past participles with und in the perfect tense, you can drop the second helping verb as long as both verbs require the same one. Since both fegen and staubsaugen take haben, the single hat in the second position covers both actions at the end of the sentence.
I sometimes hear kehren for sweeping. What is the difference between fegen and kehren?
They mean exactly the same thing! The difference is mainly regional. Fegen is more widely used in Northern and Central Germany, while kehren is the standard word for sweeping in Southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
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