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Questions & Answers about Der Ofen funktioniert seit gestern besser, weil ich ihn repariert habe.
Why is funktioniert in the present tense when the improvement started yesterday?
In German you often use the present tense to describe a state that began in the past and continues now, especially with seit. So Der Ofen funktioniert seit gestern besser literally means “The oven works better since yesterday,” just like English can say “He’s lived here since 2010” instead of “He has lived here….”
Why is seit gestern used, and why isn’t there an article or case ending?
When seit expresses “since [a point in time],” it governs the dative if there’s an article (e.g. seit dem letzten Montag), but with bare time words (gestern, heute, 2015) no article or ending is needed. It simply functions as an adverbial phrase.
Why is besser used instead of gut?
Gut means “good,” but here you’re comparing now to before, so you need the comparative form besser (“better”). The superlative am besten (“best”) would compare the oven to all others or imply “it works best of all,” which isn’t intended.
Why is there a comma before weil?
Weil introduces a subordinating conjunction in German, so it always demands a comma before it. The result is that the subordinated clause shifts its finite verb to the end.
Why does the auxiliary habe come at the very end of the sentence?
In a subordinate clause introduced by weil, German word order places the finite verb (here habe) last. In the perfect tense the past participle repariert comes just before the auxiliary: …weil ich ihn repariert habe.
Why is the pronoun ihn used instead of es, and can it be omitted?
Ofen is masculine (der Ofen), so its accusative pronoun is ihn, not es. In German you usually cannot drop a required object pronoun in a transitive verb, so you need ihn to show what you repaired.
Could I use the simple past (Präteritum) here: ich reparierte?
While Präteritum is common in writing for many verbs, spoken German often uses Perfekt. Moreover, in subordinate clauses Germans favor Perfekt even more. Saying weil ich ihn repariert habe sounds more natural in everyday speech than weil ich ihn reparierte.
Can I say “Der Ofen hat seit gestern besser funktioniert”?
Yes. That’s the perfect tense version of the main clause and is also correct, especially in spoken German:
Der Ofen hat seit gestern besser funktioniert, weil ich ihn repariert habe.
Here the main clause uses Perfekt and the subordinate still puts habe at the end.