Learn Hardcore German: Das war nur gespielt.

something that just happened:
- Someone started crying dramatically, then stops and says: Das war nur gespielt. → That was just acting / I was just pretending.
something just mentioned:
- After a scary joke: Keine Sorge, das war nur gespielt. → Don’t worry, that was just pretend.

In English you could translate it as that or it, depending on context:

That was just pretend.
It was only acted / staged.

Grammatically, das is the subject of the sentence.

Why is it war and not something like ist gewesen? What tense is this?

War is the simple past (Präteritum) of sein (to be).

sein → war (simple past) → ist gewesen (present perfect)

In German, for sein and haben, the simple past is very common even in spoken language:

Das war nur gespielt.
Literally: That was only played/acted.

Using Das ist nur gespielt gewesen is grammatically possible, but:

it sounds heavier, more formal, and less natural in this everyday context
most native speakers would choose war here

What does nur mean here, and why is it before gespielt and not somewhere else?

Nur usually means only or just.

In Das war nur gespielt, nur downplays or minimizes the action:

It was just pretend.
It was only acting.

Word order matters for emphasis:

Das war nur gespielt.
Neutral: the whole situation was just pretend.
Nur das war gespielt.
Means: Only that (and not something else) was pretend.
Now nur emphasizes das, not gespielt.

So in your sentence, nur is placed right before gespielt to focus on the manner (pretend/acted), not on the thing (das).

Why is there no haben or sein with gespielt? Isn’t it a past participle?

Yes, gespielt is the past participle of spielen (to play). But in this sentence it’s not used as part of a normal perfect tense like:

Es wurde gespielt.
Es ist gespielt worden.
Sie haben gespielt.

Instead, gespielt functions more like an adjective meaning acted / not genuine / staged.

Think of it as:

Das war gespielt. → That was fake/acted.

You could, in theory, say:

Das ist nur gespielt gewesen.

but this sounds overly heavy and is usually avoided. In everyday speech, Germans just say Das war nur gespielt, with gespielt acting adjectivally, describing the state of das.

Is the structure simply subject – verb – adverb – predicate adjective?

Yes, you can analyze it like this:

Das → subject (nominative)
war → main verb (sein, simple past)
nur → adverb (modifying the manner/quality)
gespielt → predicate adjective (describing the subject, like fake/acted)

So structurally it’s like English:

That was only pretend.
subject – verb – adverb – predicate adjective

Could I also say Es war nur gespielt? What’s the difference between das and es here?

Both are possible, but there’s a nuance:

Das war nur gespielt.
Points to something specific and concrete: that thing / that scene / that behavior was pretend. More demonstrative, like pointing with your finger.
Es war nur gespielt.
More neutral and impersonal; closer to English it. Could describe a general situation without strongly “pointing” at it.

In practice, after something very visible or specific, Das is more natural:

After a dramatic reaction, you reveal:
Das war nur gespielt.

What’s the difference between Das war nur gespielt and Das war nur ein Spiel?

They’re related but not identical:

Das war nur gespielt.
Focus: The behavior or situation was fake / acted / not genuine.
→ I was faking / I was acting / It was staged.
Das war nur ein Spiel.
Literally: That was just a game.
Focus: It was a game, not something serious or real-life.

Example:

You pretend to be angry, then laugh:
Das war nur gespielt. → I was only pretending.
You and friends played a rough game and someone got scared:
Das war nur ein Spiel. → It was only a game (not real fighting).

Context can overlap, but gespielt emphasizes pretending, ein Spiel emphasizes game vs reality.

Could I say Ich habe nur gespielt instead? Does it mean the same?

Ich habe nur gespielt is different:

Ich habe nur gespielt.
Literally: I only played / I was just playing.

This does not automatically mean I was pretending; it usually means:

I was just playing (not doing anything serious).
I was only joking around / messing about.

To express pretending more clearly, other options are:

Ich habe das nur gespielt. → I only acted that.
Ich hab nur so getan. → I was just pretending.
Ich habe nur so getan, als ob … → I only pretended that…

Das war nur gespielt focuses on that action being fake, not on you playing.

In what kinds of situations would a native speaker actually say Das war nur gespielt?

Typical situations:

Pretend emotions
- Fake crying, fake anger, fake fear:
  After revealing the truth: Das war nur gespielt.
Pranks and jokes
- You stage a fake argument or fake accident as a joke, then explain:
  Keine Sorge, das war nur gespielt.
Acting / performances
- After a realistic scene in a workshop or drama class:
  Die Szene war sehr echt, aber das war nur gespielt.

The key idea: something looked real, but it was performed, not genuine.

How do you pronounce gespielt correctly? Anything tricky for English speakers?

Key points:

ge- → like guh in get, but short: [gə]
sp at the start of a syllable in German is pronounced [ʃp] (like shp):
- gespielt → ge-SHPEE-lt
ie → long ee sound: [iː]
Final -t is clearly pronounced, not dropped.

Rough phonetic guide (English-style): guh-SHPEELT.

So: Das war nur gespielt → Dass var nur guh-SHPEELT
(with German r and a like in father).