Word
Gestern frühstückten wir schnell, weil der Wettbewerb früh anfing.
Meaning
Yesterday we had breakfast quickly because the competition started early.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching German grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Gestern frühstückten wir schnell, weil der Wettbewerb früh anfing.
Why is frühstückten used instead of haben gefrühstückt?
Because the sentence is in the Präteritum (simple past), which is often used in written narratives or formal registers. Frühstückten is the 1 st person plural Präteritum form of frühstücken. In spoken or informal German, you’d typically use the Perfekt:
Gestern haben wir schnell gefrühstückt, …
How does the word order work in Gestern frühstückten wir schnell?
Gestern is a temporal adverbial placed in the first position to set the time frame. German follows the “Time-Manner-Place” (TMP) rule for adverbials, and when an adverbial comes first, the finite verb occupies the second slot, causing subject-verb inversion:
[Adverbial] + Verb + Subject + …
so you get Gestern frühstückten wir …
Why is schnell placed right after the verb, and can I move it elsewhere?
Schnell is a manner adverb describing how you had breakfast, so it usually follows the verb or the verb phrase. You could say Wir frühstückten gestern schnell or Wir frühstückten schnell gestern, but both change emphasis or sound less natural than placing schnell immediately after the verb.
Why is there a comma before weil?