Breakdown of Dank der Teamarbeit wäre der erste Hinweis schnell gefunden worden.
sein
to be
schnell
fast, quickly
finden
to find
erste
first (adjective)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
dank
thanks to
die Teamarbeit
the teamwork
der Hinweis
the clue (hint, information)
Questions & Answers about Dank der Teamarbeit wäre der erste Hinweis schnell gefunden worden.
Why do we use wäre ... gefunden worden instead of just hätte ... gefunden?
This sentence is in the passive voice. If it were active ("The team would have found the clue"), you would use hätte plus the past participle (hätte gefunden). Because it is passive ("The clue would have been found"), we use the Konjunktiv II form of sein (wäre) as the helping verb, followed by the past participle of the main verb (gefunden), and finally the passive marker worden.
Why is the last word worden and not geworden?
In German, when werden is used as a helping verb to build the passive voice, its past participle drops the ge- prefix and becomes just worden. You only use geworden when werden is the main verb meaning "to become" (for example: Er wäre Arzt geworden - He would have become a doctor).
Why is wäre placed right after Teamarbeit and separated from the rest of the verbs?
This follows the standard German sentence bracket rule for main clauses. The prepositional phrase Dank der Teamarbeit takes up the first position. The conjugated helping verb (wäre) must take the second position. The rest of the complex verb phrase (gefunden worden) is then pushed to the very end of the sentence.
What case is used in the phrase Dank der Teamarbeit?
The preposition dank traditionally requires the genitive case, though the dative is also widely accepted in modern German. Because Teamarbeit is a feminine noun, the article der is used, which conveniently acts as the correct article for both the genitive and dative feminine cases.
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