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Reading · A1 · Text 13

Germanen

16 words1 min read94% known at A1

Man weiß nicht, wie die Germanen gesprochen haben.

It is not known how the Germanic peoples spoke.

Später wurde aus ihrer Sprache unsere deutsche Sprache.

Later, their language became our German language.

6 words above A1

Germanen
the Germanic peoples (ancient tribes) plural only
gesprochen← sprechen
spoken past participle of sprechen (spricht, sprach, gesprochen) to speak (some language, the truth, etc.); to speak, to talk, to give a speech; to say, to speak (a word, phrase, sentence, prayer, etc.) A1/ˈʃprɛçən/
Später← später
later A1/ˈʃpɛːtɐ/
Sprache
language plural: Sprachen language (body of words, and set of methods of combining them); speech (style of speaking); speech (faculty of uttering articulate sounds or words;… A1/ˈʃpʁaːxə/
unsere← unser
our possessive pronoun, nominative feminine singular A1/ˈʔʊnzɐ/
deutsche← deutsch
German adjective, nominative feminine singular German (of or pertaining to the German people); German (of or pertaining to Germany); German (of or pertaining to the German language) A1/dɔʏ̯t͡ʃ/

Grammar in this text

Past perfect tense (Plusquamperfekt) with modal verb

Man weiß nicht, wie die Germanen gesprochen haben.

The structure 'haben + past participle' forms the present perfect tense, but here it is used in a subordinate clause with 'wie' to express a past action. The auxiliary 'haben' is conjugated, and the main verb 'gesprochen' is placed at the end.

Subordinate clause with 'wie' and verb-final position

Man weiß nicht, wie die Germanen gesprochen haben.

In German, subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like 'wie' require the finite verb to be placed at the end of the clause. Here, 'haben' is the finite verb and appears after the past participle.

Simple past tense of 'werden' (become)

Später wurde aus ihrer Sprache unsere deutsche Sprache.

The verb 'wurde' is the simple past (Präteritum) of 'werden' meaning 'became'. It is used to describe a change in the past. Note the preposition 'aus' with dative ('ihrer Sprache') indicating the source.

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A1 · Text 12 Tag der deutschen Sprache 94% known · 17 words Read A1 · Text 14 Sprache 94% known · 16 words Read Practice A1 reading questions Comprehension and true/false items on texts like this one. Test yourself

Text from Germanen — MiniKlexikon, used under CC BY-SA 4.0. See sources.

Translation, glossary and grammar notes are machine-generated and inherit the same licence.