Breakdown of Sie haben heftig gestritten über das kalte Abendessen.
haben
to have
sie
they
kalt
cold
über
about (a topic)
das Abendessen
the dinner
streiten
to argue
heftig
fierce
Questions & Answers about Sie haben heftig gestritten über das kalte Abendessen.
Why is über das kalte Abendessen at the very end of the sentence, after the verb gestritten?
This is an example of using the Nachfeld (the after-field). Normally, the past participle gestritten would close the sentence. However, in spoken German or for emphasis, a prepositional phrase like über das kalte Abendessen can be moved after the final verb. This makes the sentence flow better and prevents the middle from getting too crowded.
Would it be wrong to say Sie haben heftig über das kalte Abendessen gestritten?
Not at all! In fact, that is the standard written German word order. Moving the prepositional phrase to the Nachfeld is an optional stylistic choice, mostly used in speech or to give the phrase extra focus at the end of the thought.
Why does über take the accusative case (das) here instead of the dative (dem)?
The verb streiten (to argue) pairs specifically with the preposition über to mean to argue about something. When two-way prepositions like über are used figuratively in fixed verb combinations (rather than describing physical location), they almost always trigger the accusative case.
Why is the adjective ending -e in das kalte Abendessen instead of -es?
Because the definite article das already clearly shows the gender and case (neuter accusative), the adjective only takes the weak ending -e. You would only need the strong -es ending if there were no article doing that job, for example if they just argued about cold dinner: über kaltes Abendessen.
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