Breakdown of Nachdem der Beamte das Beamtendeutsch entfernt hatte, druckte er den Bescheid aus.
er
he
haben
to have
ausdrucken
to print out
nachdem
after
der Beamte
the official
entfernen
to remove
das Beamtendeutsch
the officialese
der Bescheid
the official decision
Questions & Answers about Nachdem der Beamte das Beamtendeutsch entfernt hatte, druckte er den Bescheid aus.
How would we express the Nachdem clause as a prepositional phrase (nominal style) instead?
To turn the verb entfernen (to remove) into a noun phrase, you use the preposition nach (after) + dative + the noun die Entfernung. The direct object das Beamtendeutsch then becomes a genitive attribute. The nominalized version is: Nach der Entfernung des Beamtendeutschs druckte er den Bescheid aus. The sentence we are studying is the "verbalized" version (using a subordinate clause), which usually flows much better in everyday German!
Why is the first clause in the past perfect (hatte ... entfernt) but the second is in the simple past (druckte ... aus)?
The conjunction nachdem (after) requires a strict sequence of tenses. Because the action of removing the jargon happened before printing the decision, and the main clause is in the simple past (Präteritum), the nachdem clause must be pushed one step further back into the past. That is why it uses the past perfect (Plusquamperfekt).
Why is the word for "the official" der Beamte here, when I often see ein Beamter?
Beamter is an adjectival noun. This means it declines exactly like an adjective, even though it is capitalized and acts as a noun. Because it follows the definite article der in the nominative masculine here, it takes the weak adjective ending -e (der Beamte). If it followed the indefinite article ein, it would take the strong ending -er (ein Beamter).
What kind of word is Beamtendeutsch?
It is a compound of der Beamte (the civil servant/official) and Deutsch (German), joined by an -n- linking letter. It translates to "officialese" or "bureaucratese"—the notoriously complicated, passive-heavy, and formal language used in German government letters and documents (like the Bescheid mentioned in the main clause).
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