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Questions & Answers about Damals war die Stadt ruhig.
What does damals mean, and why is it used here?
Damals is an adverb of time meaning “at that time” or “back then.” It sets the temporal context in the past. In this sentence, it tells us we’re talking about how the city used to be at some earlier point.
Why is damals placed at the beginning of the sentence? Could it go elsewhere?
German is a V2 (verb-second) language, so whatever element you put first, the finite verb must come second. Here damals occupies the first position, so war follows it. You could also say:
Die Stadt war damals ruhig.
In that version, die Stadt is first, war second, then damals. Both are grammatically correct; fronting damals simply shifts the emphasis onto the time frame.
Why is die Stadt in the nominative case, and why not eine Stadt?
Die Stadt is the subject of war, so it takes the nominative case. The definite article die indicates a specific city already known or mentioned in context. If you said eine Stadt, you’d mean “a city” in a more general or unspecified sense.
Why doesn’t the adjective ruhig take an ending (e.g., ruhige)?
Here ruhig is used predicatively with the verb sein (war). Predicative adjectives never get case endings in German. You only add endings when an adjective is attributive (directly modifying a noun), as in die ruhige Stadt, where ruhige takes -e for feminine nominative.
Why is the simple past war used instead of the present ist, or the perfect ist ruhig gewesen?
In German narrative (spoken or written), the Präteritum (simple past) is common with sein, especially to describe past states or events. Damals war sounds natural for telling what things were like. The Perfekt (ist ruhig gewesen) is possible but often reserved for spoken stories or specific contexts and can feel more conversational.
Could I replace ruhig with still or leise, and would the meaning change?
- still (“quiet/peaceful”): Focuses on absence of noise, similar to ruhig, so Damals war die Stadt still works if you emphasize silence.
- leise (“soft/low in volume”): Usually describes a sound or voice, not a state. Die Stadt war leise sounds odd because a whole city being “low in volume” isn’t a typical usage.
- ruhig covers both calmness and lack of noise, making it the most natural choice here.
Are commas needed in this sentence?
No. It’s a simple main clause with no subordinate clauses or enumerations, so no commas are required. The structure is simply: [adverbial] [verb] [subject] [predicative adjective].