Breakdown of Wir haben die Kinder auf dem Spielplatz lachen und hüpfen hören.
das Kind
the child
und
and
lachen
to laugh
haben
to have
wir
we
hören
to hear / to listen
auf
on / to (down/up to a level)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Spielplatz
the playground
hüpfen
to hop
Questions & Answers about Wir haben die Kinder auf dem Spielplatz lachen und hüpfen hören.
Why does the sentence end with the infinitive hören instead of the past participle gehört?
This is the double infinitive rule. When verbs of perception like hören or sehen (along with lassen and helfen) are used in the Perfekt tense alongside another action verb, they use their infinitive form instead of the standard past participle. Because the children are performing the actions lachen and hüpfen, the participle gehört turns into the infinitive hören.
There are three infinitives at the end: lachen, hüpfen, and hören. Is it normal to stack them like this?
Yes! Since the children are doing two actions (laughing and hopping), both verbs stay in the infinitive. The sensory verb hören always comes last in this infinitive block. You just link the action verbs with und and cap the sentence off with hören.
If this were a subordinate clause starting with weil, would the conjugated verb haben go at the very end?
Actually, no. While the conjugated verb normally goes to the end of a subordinate clause, the double infinitive structure creates a major exception. The conjugated haben must jump right in front of the whole infinitive block. It would be: ..., weil wir die Kinder auf dem Spielplatz haben lachen und hüpfen hören.
Quick refresher: why do we use the dative dem in auf dem Spielplatz instead of the accusative den?
auf is a two-way preposition. Because the hearing, laughing, and hopping are all happening in a fixed location (within the playground), it takes the dative case. If the children were jumping onto the playground from somewhere else (showing movement to a new destination), you would use the accusative den.
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