Word
Gestern flackerte die Anzeige, bis der Techniker kam.
Meaning
Yesterday the display flickered until the technician arrived.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
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Questions & Answers about Gestern flackerte die Anzeige, bis der Techniker kam.
What tense is flackerte, and why is it used instead of a perfect tense like hat geflackert?
flackerte is the simple past (Präteritum) form of the weak verb flackern. In German, the simple past is very common in written narratives and formal contexts. A learner could also say:
- Gestern hat die Anzeige geflackert, bis der Techniker kam.
using the present perfect (Perfekt), which is more frequent in spoken German. Both are correct; the choice often depends on style and region.
Why does Gestern come at the very beginning of the sentence?
German typically follows a Time-Verb-Subject-Other (TVSO) order when a time expression leads:
- Time: Gestern
- Verb: flackerte
- Subject: die Anzeige
This fronting of Gestern emphasizes when the action happened. The finite verb must occupy the second position in a main clause (V2 rule).
Why is die Anzeige in the nominative case?
Anzeige is the subject of the intransitive verb flackern (it flickers, but doesn’t take a direct object), so it must appear in the nominative case. The article die marks feminine nominative singular here.
What role does bis play in this sentence?