Breakdown of Der Sprengstoff hätte das Double beinahe erwischt.
haben
to have
das Double
the stunt double
beinahe
almost
erwischen
to hit (a target)
der Sprengstoff
the explosive
Questions & Answers about Der Sprengstoff hätte das Double beinahe erwischt.
Why does the German sentence use hätte ... erwischt (would have caught) when the English translation just says "almost caught"?
In German, events that almost happened in the past but didn't (near misses) are expressed using the past subjunctive (Konjunktiv II) along with fast or beinahe. While English uses the simple past for this, German is more literal about the unfulfilled condition, essentially saying the explosives "would have almost caught" the double.
The English translation uses the plural "explosives", so why is Sprengstoff singular in German?
Could I put beinahe earlier in the sentence, for example right after hätte?
Yes, but it changes the emphasis. Adverbs like beinahe typically go right before the part of the sentence they modify. Placed right before erwischt, it emphasizes that the action of catching almost happened. If you put it before das Double (... hätte beinahe das Double erwischt), it sounds like the explosives almost caught the double, but perhaps actually caught someone else instead.
The verb here is erwischen. How is that different from a standard word for catching, like fangen?
Fangen is used for literally catching a physical object flying through the air, like a ball. Erwischen is used for catching someone doing something wrong, catching a train just in time, or being struck by something dangerous. When a bomb, bullet, or disease "gets" you, German uses erwischen.
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