Breakdown of Der Kollege, den ich meine, benimmt sich eingebildet, als wäre er der Chef.
ich
I
sein
to be
er
he
der Chef
the boss (male)
der Kollege
the colleague
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
meinen
to mean (to have an opinion, intend)
sich benehmen
to behave (manners)
als
as if (irreal comparison)
eingebildet
conceited
Questions & Answers about Der Kollege, den ich meine, benimmt sich eingebildet, als wäre er der Chef.
Why does the verb wäre come immediately after als? Doesn't als normally send the verb to the end?
In standard subordinate clauses, yes. But this sentence is using an irreal comparison (meaning "as if"). When you use just als to mean "as if" (instead of als ob or als wenn), German uses a special Verb-First (V1) word order. The conjugated verb wäre jumps to the front of its clause, right after als.
Why do we use wäre instead of ist here?
Because it is an unreal situation. The colleague is not actually the boss, but he is behaving "as if he were". To express this hypothetical, contrary-to-fact scenario, German requires the Konjunktiv II (Subjunctive II) form wäre.
eingebildet looks like a past participle. How does it translate to "conceited"?
It is indeed the past participle of the verb sich etwas einbilden (to imagine something or have illusions about something). Over time, eingebildet became a standalone adjective used to describe someone who imagines themselves to be much better or more important than they actually are—hence, "conceited" or "arrogant".
Why does the relative clause start with den instead of der, since it refers back to Der Kollege?
A relative pronoun gets its gender (masculine) and number (singular) from the noun it refers to, but its case depends on its grammatical job inside its own clause. Here, the subject of the relative clause is ich and the verb is meine. Because the colleague is the direct object being "meant", the pronoun must be in the accusative case: den.
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