Word
Er hat drei Wochen in Deutschland verbracht.
Meaning
He spent three weeks in Germany.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Er hat drei Wochen in Deutschland verbracht.
in
in
Deutschland
Germany
haben
to have
drei
three
Questions & Answers about Er hat drei Wochen in Deutschland verbracht.
Why is the verb verbracht used here instead of ausgegeben?
In English, you use the same verb for spending time and spending money. In German, these require completely different verbs. You use verbringen (past participle: verbracht) to spend time, and ausgeben to spend money.
Why do we say drei Wochen instead of für drei Wochen?
To express how long an action lasts, German simply puts the time phrase in the accusative case without a preposition. While English speakers naturally want to add für to mean for, German just says drei Wochen.
Why doesn't the past participle verbracht start with ge-?
The infinitive of the verb is verbringen. The prefix ver- is inseparable. Verbs with inseparable prefixes (like ver-, be-, ent-, and er-) never take a ge- when forming the past participle.
Why do we use in Deutschland instead of nach Deutschland?
You use nach with most countries when you are traveling to them to show a destination. In this sentence, the verb verbringen describes a stationary situation showing where he already was while the time passed. For location, we use in.