Breakdown of Wegen des Wetters haben wir nur halb Europa besucht.
haben
to have
wir
we
besuchen
to visit
das Wetter
the weather
halb
half
nur
only
wegen
because of
Europa
Europe
Questions & Answers about Wegen des Wetters haben wir nur halb Europa besucht.
Why is it halb Europa and not halbes Europa?
This highlights a special exception for geographical names. When the adjectives halb (half) or ganz (whole/all of) are placed directly before a continent, country, or city name that does not use a definite article, they drop their adjective endings. Therefore, it is simply halb Europa instead of halbes Europa.
How would this rule work if the region or country name required a definite article, like die Schweiz (Switzerland)?
If the geographical name uses an article, the exception is ignored and you must use standard adjective declension. For example, to say "half of Switzerland" you would say die halbe Schweiz.
Why is it Wegen des Wetters? Doesn't wegen sometimes take the dative case?
The preposition wegen strictly takes the genitive case in standard written German, which is why we use des Wetters here. While it is true that native speakers frequently use the dative (wegen dem Wetter) in casual, everyday speech, using the genitive is the grammatically correct standard you are expected to use at the B2 level.
Why does the verb haben come right after Wetters instead of after the subject wir?
This is a great reminder of standard verb-second (V2) word order. The entire prepositional phrase Wegen des Wetters acts as a single block that takes up the first position in the sentence. The conjugated verb haben must lock into the second position, which forces the subject wir to move to the third position right after the verb.
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