Breakdown of Der Sommer war dieses Jahr besonders heiß.
sein
to be
heiß
hot
das Jahr
the year
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
der Sommer
the summer
besonders
especially, particularly
Questions & Answers about Der Sommer war dieses Jahr besonders heiß.
Why is it dieses Jahr and not in diesem Jahr?
Both are actually correct! dieses Jahr uses the accusative case to show a definite time without needing a preposition. Using in diesem Jahr (dative with the preposition in) means exactly the same thing, but native speakers often prefer the shorter dieses Jahr in everyday communication.
The current lesson is about focus particles like sogar or ausgerechnet. Is besonders a focus particle here?
Not quite. Here, besonders acts as an intensifier (a grading particle) rather than a focus particle. Focus particles can often move around the sentence to shift the spotlight to different words (e.g., Sogar der Sommer... vs. ...dieses Jahr sogar heiß). However, because besonders is directly intensifying the adjective heiß, it is locked in place and must sit right in front of the word it modifies.
Could I emphasize the time by starting the sentence with Dieses Jahr? How would that change the word order?
Yes, you can absolutely start with the time expression! If you do, remember the strict "verb-second" rule. The verb war must stay in the second structural position, which pushes the subject to the third position: Dieses Jahr war der Sommer besonders heiß.
Since this describes a past event, why use the Präteritum (war) instead of the Perfekt (ist ... gewesen)?
While spoken German normally relies on the Perfekt tense for past events, there is a major exception you likely learned earlier. For the verbs sein (to be), haben (to have), and modal verbs, native speakers strongly prefer the simple past (Präteritum) even in casual conversation. Saying Der Sommer ist dieses Jahr besonders heiß gewesen is grammatically fine, but it sounds unusually clunky.
Learn Der Sommer war dieses Jahr besonders heiß and more in German
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free