Breakdown of Gelernt habe ich Billard nie, aber ich mag den Queue.
ich
I
lernen
to learn
haben
to have
aber
but
nie
never
mögen
to like
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
das Billard
the billiards
der Queue
the cue
Questions & Answers about Gelernt habe ich Billard nie, aber ich mag den Queue.
Why does this sentence start with the past participle Gelernt instead of the subject?
This is called topicalization. By moving the past participle to Position 1, the speaker heavily emphasizes the action itself to set up a strong contrast. It gives the feeling of "Learning it is something I've never done, but..."
Because Gelernt is fronted, what happens to the rest of the sentence structure?
German maintains its strict "verb-second" rule here. The conjugated helping verb (habe) must stay in Position 2. Since Position 1 is taken by the participle, the subject (ich) is pushed to Position 3, immediately after the verb.
Is Queue a masculine noun, and how on earth do you pronounce it?
Yes, you can tell it is masculine because it takes the accusative article den as the direct object of mögen. It is a loanword from French, and in German, it is usually pronounced like "Kö" (rhyming roughly with the vowel sound in the English word "earn").
Why is there no article in front of Billard?
Just like in English, the names of sports and games are generally used without an article in German when you talk about playing, practicing, or learning them (for example, Fußball spielen or Billard lernen).
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