Daily Language Challenge
Frequently Asked German Questions
'Haben' or 'Sein' with the Verb 'Schlafen' in German Past Tense?
For example, the sentence "Die Katze hat den ganzen Tag geschlafen."
Although 'schlafen' is an intransitive verb, it uses 'haben' as the helping verb in the perfect tense because it does not indicate a change of state or location. The correct sentence is 'Die Katze hat den ganzen Tag geschlafen', which means 'The cat slept the whole day'. Understanding this distinction is important for accurately expressing actions in German. Note that this is different to 'einschlafen' which means 'to fall asleep'. This uses 'sein' because it indicates a change of state.
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