Breakdown of Während wir frühstückten, erzählte er von seinem eigenen Sieg.
wir
we
er
he
sein
his
frühstücken
to have breakfast
während
while
erzählen
to tell
von
about
der Sieg
the victory
eigen
own
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching German grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Während wir frühstückten, erzählte er von seinem eigenen Sieg.
Why does während push the verb to the end of its clause?
Because während is a subordinating conjunction in German. All subordinating conjunctions (like weil, dass, bevor) send the finite verb to the very end of their clause. So in Während wir frühstückten, the verb frühstückten comes last.
Why is there a comma after frühstückten?
German requires a comma to separate a subordinate clause from the main clause. Since Während wir frühstückten is a subordinate clause, you must place a comma before the main clause erzählte er von seinem eigenen Sieg.
Why does the main clause start with erzählte instead of the subject er?
German main clauses follow the V-second (V2) rule: the finite verb must appear in the second position. However, when a subordinate clause comes first, it does not count as position 1 in the main clause. As a result the finite verb moves to position 1 of the main clause, producing erzählte er instead of er erzählte.
Why are frühstückten and erzählte in the simple past (Präteritum) rather than the present perfect (Perfekt)?
In written or narrative German, the Präteritum is commonly used for past events—especially with verbs like erzählen, frühstücken, gehen. In spoken German you’d often hear the Perfekt (haben gefrühstückt, hat erzählt), but in a text or story Präteritum is preferred.
Why is it von seinem and not von sein?
The preposition von always takes the dative case. The masculine singular dative form of sein is seinem. So you must say von seinem rather than von sein.
Why does the adjective eigenen end with -en in seinem eigenen Sieg?
After a possessive determiner like seinem, German uses the so-called “mixed” adjective declension. In the masculine dative singular that means the adjective also takes an -en ending. Hence seinem eigenen Sieg.
Can I drop eigenen and just say von seinem Sieg?
Yes—you can say von seinem Sieg. eigenen simply adds emphasis (“his very own victory,” as opposed to someone else’s). If you remove it, the sentence is still correct and means “he told about his victory,” just without the extra nuance of “own.”
Why is Sieg capitalized?
In German all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they appear. Sieg is a noun, so it always starts with a capital letter.
Could I replace the während clause with a genitive phrase, for example Während des Frühstücks?
Yes. You can use während as a preposition with the genitive:
• Während des Frühstücks erzählte er von seinem eigenen Sieg.
Here des Frühstücks is genitive singular (“of the breakfast”), which shortens the structure and is equally correct.