Breakdown of Die Frau sagte aus, der Komplize habe draußen gewartet.
die Frau
the woman
haben
to have
draußen
outside
warten
to wait
aussagen
to testify
der Komplize
the accomplice
Questions & Answers about Die Frau sagte aus, der Komplize habe draußen gewartet.
Why is it habe gewartet and not hatte gewartet?
This is the past tense of Konjunktiv I, which is used for reported speech. You form it by taking the Konjunktiv I form of the helper verb (habe) and adding the past participle (gewartet). It signals that we are reporting the woman's claim without necessarily confirming it as a fact.
Why is habe the second word in its clause instead of going to the very end?
This is because the conjunction dass (that) was left out. When you drop dass in indirect speech, the reported clause uses normal main-clause word order, meaning the conjugated verb (habe) stays in position 2. If you used dass, it would be: dass der Komplize draußen gewartet habe.
Is sagte aus just the past tense of sagen plus a preposition?
It is from the separable verb aussagen, which specifically means to testify or make a formal statement. Because this first clause is in the simple past tense (Präteritum), the separable prefix aus moves to the end of that specific clause.
Komplize is a masculine noun, so why does it end in an -e here?
It is a weak masculine noun (part of the N-declension group). These nouns often end in -e in their base form (nominative). If it were in the accusative, dative, or genitive case, it would take an extra -n ending (den Komplizen). Since it is the subject here, it stays der Komplize.
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