Letzte Woche hatte ich die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen und bin trotzdem geschwommen.

Last week I had forgotten my swimming goggles at home and still went swimming.

Breakdown of Letzte Woche hatte ich die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen und bin trotzdem geschwommen.

• sein: to be
• und: and
• das Haus: the house
• ich: I
• haben: to have
• vergessen: to forget
• die Woche: the week
• zu: at
• trotzdem: still
• letzt: last
• schwimmen: to swim
• die Schwimmbrille: the swimming goggles

Questions & Answers about Letzte Woche hatte ich die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen und bin trotzdem geschwommen.

Why does the sentence start with Letzte Woche and then have hatte ich, not ich hatte?

German main clauses follow the verb‑second rule: the conjugated verb must be in the second position in the sentence.

• If the subject comes first: Ich hatte die Schwimmbrille …
• If something else (like a time expression) comes first, the subject moves after the verb:
  • Letzte Woche hatte ich die Schwimmbrille …

So Letzte Woche (time) is in first position, hatte (the verb) must still be second, and ich (the subject) comes third. This inversion is completely normal in German.

Why is it hatte … vergessen and not habe … vergessen or vergaß?

Hatte … vergessen is the past perfect (Plusquamperfekt):
hatte (past of haben) + vergessen (past participle).

• Plusquamperfekt is used for an action that was already finished before another past action:
  • “Before I went swimming, I had forgotten my goggles at home.”

In everyday spoken German, people very often just use the Perfekt instead:

• Letzte Woche habe ich die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen und bin trotzdem geschwommen.

They could also use Präteritum:

• Letzte Woche vergaß ich die Schwimmbrille zu Hause und schwamm trotzdem.

So, all three tenses are grammatically possible; the original sentence with hatte … vergessen emphasizes that the forgetting happened earlier than the swimming.

Why is it die Schwimmbrille (singular) even though in English we say “goggles” (plural)?

German and English don’t always match in number.

• die Schwimmbrille is singular, literally “the swim glasses”.
• It means a pair of swimming goggles in English.
• The plural is die Schwimmbrillen (“several pairs of goggles”).

English has some items that are grammatically plural but conceptually one object (“goggles, scissors, trousers”).
German usually treats one pair as singular: die Brille, die Schwimmbrille, die Hose, etc.

What case is die Schwimmbrille here, and how do we know?

Here die Schwimmbrille is in the accusative case (direct object).

Pattern:

• Subject (nominative): ich
• Verb: hatte … vergessen
• Direct object (the thing forgotten): die Schwimmbrille

For a feminine noun like Schwimmbrille, the article is die in both nominative and accusative:

• Nominative singular: die Schwimmbrille
• Accusative singular: die Schwimmbrille

So the form doesn’t change; you recognize the case by the role in the sentence: “What did I forget?” → “the goggles” → direct object → accusative.

Why is it die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen and not zu Hause die Schwimmbrille vergessen?

Both word orders are possible:

• … hatte ich die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen …
• … hatte ich zu Hause die Schwimmbrille vergessen …

The usual guideline for German adverb order is TEKAMOLO:
Time – Kause (reason) – Manner – Location.

In the original sentence, after Letzte Woche (time), the object comes (die Schwimmbrille), then the place (zu Hause):

• Time: Letzte Woche
• (Subject, verb)
• Object: die Schwimmbrille
• Place: zu Hause

If you put zu Hause earlier, you just slightly change the emphasis. Native speakers use both orders depending on what they want to stress.

What is the difference between zu Hause and nach Hause?

• zu Hause = at home (location, “where?”)

  • Ich bin zu Hause. – I am at home.
  • Ich habe die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen. – I forgot the goggles at home.

• nach Hause = (to) home (direction, “where to?”)

  • Ich gehe nach Hause. – I am going home.
  • Ich fahre nach Hause. – I am driving home.

So in this sentence we talk about where the goggles were left (location), so zu Hause is correct, not nach Hause.

Why is zu Hause written as two words, and why is Hause capitalized?

Historically, zu Hause comes from a phrase with the noun das Haus:

• zu Hause = literally “at (the) house”.

Because Haus is a noun, it’s written with a capital letter in German: Hause (in this frozen dative form).

In modern German, you also often see zuhause written as one word in informal texts (especially as an adverb):

• Ich bin zuhause.

Traditional, fully standard spelling in a sentence like this is:

• … die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen …

Why is it bin geschwommen and not habe geschwommen?

Schwimmen uses different auxiliaries depending on how it is used.

1. Intransitive, movement / change of place → usually sein:

   • Ich bin im See geschwommen.
   • Ich bin geschwommen. (I swam.)

2. Transitive or more “activity-like” uses → can take haben:

   • Ich habe 2 Kilometer geschwommen.
   • Wir haben eine Stunde geschwommen.

In your sentence, geschwommen is an intransitive movement verb (“I swam”), so sein is the natural auxiliary: bin geschwommen.

Why is the participle geschwommen and not something like geschwimmt?

Schwimmen is a strong (irregular) verb. Many strong verbs form the past participle with:

• ge- + changed stem + -en

Examples:

• gehen → gegangen
• kommen → gekommen
• schreiben → geschrieben
• schwimmen → geschwommen

So geschwommen is just the irregular participle form of schwimmen.
A form like geschwimmt would follow a weak-verb pattern and is incorrect.

What does trotzdem do in the sentence, and where can it go?

trotzdem is an adverb meaning nevertheless / anyway / despite that.
It refers back to the earlier clause (“I had forgotten the goggles at home”) and introduces a contrasting result (“I still went swimming”).

In a main clause, trotzdem behaves like any sentence adverb: if it comes first, it triggers inversion:

• Trotzdem bin ich geschwommen. (Adverb first → verb second → subject third)

In your sentence it appears after the subject and auxiliary:

• … und bin trotzdem geschwommen.

Other acceptable orders:

• … und trotzdem bin ich geschwommen. (new clause starting with trotzdem)
• … und ich bin trotzdem geschwommen. (if you explicitly repeat ich)

All of these are grammatical; they differ in rhythm and emphasis.

Could I use obwohl instead of trotzdem? How would the sentence change?

Yes. Trotzdem and obwohl express a similar contrast but work differently:

• trotzdem = adverb in a main clause (“nevertheless”)
• obwohl = subordinating conjunction (“although”)

Your sentence with obwohl:

• Obwohl ich die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen hatte, bin ich geschwommen.
  • Literally: “Although I had forgotten the goggles at home, I (still) swam.”

Notice the changes:

• obwohl introduces a subordinate clause → verb to the end (vergessen hatte).
• The main clause bin ich geschwommen stands separately.

With trotzdem, you keep two main‑clause structures:

• Ich hatte die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen, trotzdem bin ich geschwommen.
• Or the version you had: one clause + und bin trotzdem geschwommen.

Why is there no ich before bin in … und bin trotzdem geschwommen?

German often omits a repeated subject when two parts of a sentence share the same subject and are closely connected:

• Ich hatte die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen, und ich bin trotzdem geschwommen.
• → Ich hatte die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen und bin trotzdem geschwommen.

Both are correct. The shorter version sounds more natural and less repetitive.
It’s understood that ich is the subject of both hatte … vergessen and bin … geschwommen.

Is this one sentence or two, and should there be a comma before und?

Structurally, you have two finite verbs (hatte and bin) coordinated with und, sharing the same subject ich (which is omitted the second time). This can be seen as:

• One sentence with a compound predicate:
  Ich hatte … vergessen und bin … geschwommen.

In modern German punctuation:

• A comma before und is usually not required in this case.
• It would only be used if you clearly treat them as two separate main clauses and want to emphasize the separation:
  • … hatte ich die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen, und bin trotzdem geschwommen. (unusual here; most people would leave the comma out)

So the version ohne Komma is standard and idiomatic:

• Letzte Woche hatte ich die Schwimmbrille zu Hause vergessen und bin trotzdem geschwommen.