Meinen Gewohnheiten entgegen vergaß ich den Blinker.
Contrary to my habits, I forgot the turn signal.
Breakdown of Meinen Gewohnheiten entgegen vergaß ich den Blinker.
ich
I
vergessen
to forget
mein
my
die Gewohnheit
the habit
entgegen
contrary to
der Blinker
the turn signal
Questions & Answers about Meinen Gewohnheiten entgegen vergaß ich den Blinker.
Why is entgegen placed after Meinen Gewohnheiten instead of before it?
entgegen is a special type of preposition called a postposition, meaning it can be placed after the noun it refers to. Both entgegen meinen Gewohnheiten and Meinen Gewohnheiten entgegen are perfectly correct, but putting it after the noun is very common and emphasizes the contrast.
How can we tell that Meinen Gewohnheiten is in the dative case here?
The possessive pronoun gives it away: Meinen ends in -en, which is the dative plural ending. The noun Gewohnheit (habit) forms its plural as Gewohnheiten. Since the plural already ends in an -n, we do not need to add the extra dative plural -n that other nouns usually get.
Why is the verb vergaß placed before the subject ich?
This is a great example of the V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire phrase Meinen Gewohnheiten entgegen counts as a single block occupying the first position in the sentence. The conjugated verb vergaß must be in the second position, which pushes the subject ich to the third position.
Would a German speaker use the simple past vergaß in everyday conversation?
In spoken German, people usually prefer the Perfekt tense and would say habe ich den Blinker vergessen. The simple past form vergaß sounds more formal or narrative, which perfectly matches the slightly elevated, formal tone of the phrase Meinen Gewohnheiten entgegen.
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