In meiner Kindheit bin ich barfuß über die Felder gelaufen.

In my childhood I ran barefoot across the fields.

Breakdown of In meiner Kindheit bin ich barfuß über die Felder gelaufen.

• sein: to be
• in: in
• ich: I
• mein: my
• laufen: to run
• barfuß: barefoot
• das Feld: the field
• die Kindheit: the childhood
• über: across

Questions & Answers about In meiner Kindheit bin ich barfuß über die Felder gelaufen.

Why is it bin … gelaufen instead of habe … gelaufen?

German uses two auxiliary verbs to form the present perfect (Perfekt): haben and sein.

With motion verbs like laufen, gehen, fahren, etc., you normally use sein when:

• the verb is intransitive (no direct object)
• and it expresses a change of location / movement from A to B

In the sentence:

• ich – subject
• bin – auxiliary (present of sein)
• gelaufen – past participle
• There is no direct object, just über die Felder (a prepositional phrase of place)

So the standard rule applies: Ich bin gelaufen, not Ich habe gelaufen.

Compare:

• Ich bin schnell nach Hause gelaufen. – I ran home quickly. (movement → sein)
• Ich habe das Programm laufen lassen. – I let the program run. (here laufen is more “to run (operate)” → haben)

Some dialects or colloquial varieties may sometimes use haben with laufen, but in standard German, sein is correct here.

Why is the perfect used (bin … gelaufen) and not the simple past (lief)?

Both are grammatically possible:

• In meiner Kindheit bin ich barfuß über die Felder gelaufen.
• In meiner Kindheit lief ich barfuß über die Felder.

The difference is mostly style and register:

• In spoken German, the Perfekt (with haben/sein + Partizip II) is the usual past tense for almost all verbs, especially in the south of Germany, Austria, Switzerland.
• The Präteritum (simple past: lief, ging, machte) is more common in written language, especially in narratives, literature, and reports.

So your sentence sounds like natural spoken German.
With lief, it would sound more like a narrative in a book or written story, but it is still correct.

Why does the sentence start with In meiner Kindheit instead of Ich? Is that special word order?

German main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb (here bin) must be in second position.

The “first position” (Vorfeld) can be almost anything you want to emphasize: the subject, a time phrase, a place phrase, etc.

Two versions:

1. Ich bin in meiner Kindheit barfuß über die Felder gelaufen.

   • First position: Ich (subject)
   • Second position: bin

2. In meiner Kindheit bin ich barfuß über die Felder gelaufen.

   • First position: In meiner Kindheit (time expression)
   • Second position: bin
   • Subject ich moves after the verb

Both are correct. Starting with In meiner Kindheit puts a little extra emphasis on “during my childhood” rather than on “I”.

Why is it meiner Kindheit and not meine Kindheit?

This is a case issue.

• The preposition in can take dative or accusative, depending on meaning.
• Here, in expresses a time period (during my childhood), and for time periods with in, German uses the dative.

Kindheit is feminine, so the forms are:

• Nominative: meine Kindheit
• Accusative: meine Kindheit
• Dative: meiner Kindheit
• Genitive: meiner Kindheit

Because in here requires dative, you get:

• in meiner Kindheit = during my childhood

So meiner is the feminine dative singular of mein.

Could in meiner Kindheit ever be accusative, like in meine Kindheit?

Not with this meaning.

• In meine Kindheit (accusative) would suggest movement into childhood, which doesn’t really make sense as a normal phrase.
• When in + time expression means “during” or “in the period of”, German uses the dative:
  • In meiner Jugend – in my youth
  • Im Sommer – in (the) summer
  • Im Jahr 1999 – in the year 1999

So for “in/during my childhood”, the correct form is in meiner Kindheit (dative), not accusative.

Why is it über die Felder and not über den Feldern?

The preposition über is a two-way preposition (Wechselpräposition). It can take:

• accusative → when there is movement or a change of position
• dative → when it’s static (no movement)

Compare:

• Ich laufe über die Felder. – I run across the fields. (movement → accusative)
• Die Vögel fliegen über den Feldern. – The birds are flying above the fields. (location over them → often dative)

In the given sentence:

• The person is moving across the fields.
• So über die Felder is accusative plural:
  • Article: die (accusative plural)
  • Noun: Felder (plural of das Feld)

Meaning: across the fields, not just “floating above” them.

Why is the article die in die Felder if Feld is neuter?

In the plural, the definite article is die for all genders in both nominative and accusative:

• Singular:
  • das Feld – neuter, nominative/accusative
• Plural:
  • die Felder – plural, nominative/accusative (same article for masculine/feminine/neuter in plural)

So:

• über die Felder
  
  • über → accusative (because of movement)
  • die → accusative plural article
  • Felder → plural of Feld

The fact that Feld is neuter only shows in the singular (das Feld). In the plural, the article is die.

What exactly is barfuß grammatically? Why doesn’t it have an ending?

barfuß is used here as an adverb / predicative adjective meaning “barefoot”.

Key points:

• As an adverb, it does not change its form:
  • Ich gehe barfuß. – I go barefoot.
  • Wir sind barfuß gelaufen. – We ran barefoot.
• It does not get adjective endings in this use:
  • You do not say *barfuße or *barfußen with this meaning.

You can use barfuß attributively in special or poetic contexts (e.g. die barfüßige Frau), but in normal modern usage, barfuß is essentially treated like an adverb: invariable, no endings.

In your sentence, it just describes how you ran (manner), similar to:

• schnell – quickly
• langsam – slowly
• barfuß – barefoot

Why is the order In meiner Kindheit bin ich barfuß über die Felder gelaufen? Could it be … bin ich über die Felder barfuß gelaufen?

German has a preferred order for adverbials: Time – Manner – Place (often remembered as TMP):

• Time: In meiner Kindheit
• Manner: barfuß
• Place: über die Felder

So the sentence follows the standard pattern:

In meiner Kindheit (T) bin ich barfuß (M) über die Felder (P) gelaufen.

You could say:

• In meiner Kindheit bin ich über die Felder barfuß gelaufen.

This is still grammatically correct, but it sounds less natural because it breaks the typical TMP order. German is flexible with word order for emphasis, but the given version is the default and most idiomatic one.

What is the difference between laufen, rennen, and gehen in this context?

Roughly:

• gehen – to walk (normal walking pace)
  • Ich bin über die Felder gegangen. – I walked across the fields.
• laufen – to walk/run, depending on region; often means to jog or move faster than walking, but can also simply mean to walk in everyday German, especially in southern Germany.
  • Ich bin über die Felder gelaufen. – I ran/jogged / moved on foot across the fields.
• rennen – to run (fast, like sprinting)
  • Ich bin über die Felder gerannt. – I ran (very fast) across the fields.

In your sentence, gelaufen suggests moving on foot, fairly freely, possibly faster than normal walking, but not necessarily sprinting. It fits the nostalgic, childhood picture well.

Why is the participle gelaufen and not something like gelauft?

laufen is a strong verb, so its past forms are irregular.

Principal parts:

• Infinitive: laufen
• Simple past (Präteritum): lief
• Past participle (Partizip II): gelaufen

Strong verbs typically:

1. Add ge- at the beginning.
2. Keep the -en ending in the participle.
3. Often change the stem vowel.

Compare:

• fahren – fuhr – gefahren
• sehen – sah – gesehen
• laufen – lief – gelaufen

So:

• Ich bin gelaufen. – I ran / I have run.
• *gelauft would follow weak-verb rules (like machen → gemacht) but laufen is not a weak verb; *gelauft is simply wrong.

What does In meiner Kindheit mean exactly? Is it the same as “when I was a child”?

Yes, in meiner Kindheit corresponds to “in my childhood”, and in context it is very close in meaning to “when I was a child”.

You might also hear or use:

• Als Kind bin ich barfuß über die Felder gelaufen. – As a child, I ran barefoot across the fields.
• Früher, als ich ein Kind war, bin ich barfuß über die Felder gelaufen. – In the past, when I was a child, …

All of these introduce a time frame in the past.
In meiner Kindheit sounds slightly more neutral/formal than Als Kind, but both are common and natural.

What is the letter ß in barfuß, and how is it pronounced?

The letter ß is called Eszett or scharfes S (“sharp s”).

Pronunciation:

• It is pronounced like an unvoiced /s/, the same sound as ss in groß or Wasser.
• So barfuß is pronounced like bar-fuss, not like bar-fuß with any extra sound.

Spelling rule (simplified):

• After a long vowel or diphthong, German often uses ß instead of ss:
  • Fuß, Straße, heißen
• After a short vowel, German uses ss:
  • Fluss, Masse, müssen

In barfuß, the u is long, so you get fuß with ß, not fuss.