war
The English word 'was' translates to the German verb war in its default form.
The German word was is used to mean 'what' or 'which' in English. It is also used in phrases like Was für ein, meaning 'what kind of' and Welch ein, meaning 'what a'.
Which one should you use?
In English, 'was' and 'were' are distinguished by person, but in German, the form war covers both 'I was' and 'he/she/it was'.
Is it said differently in some regions?
The variant wat is used in certain dialects instead of was to mean 'what'.
How does it change in a sentence?
The verb changes based on the subject. While war is used for the first and third-person singular, you use warst for the informal second-person singular ('you were'). For the second-person plural in informal contexts, use wart ('you all were'). All plural subjects, such as 'we were', 'you (plural) were' and 'they were', use the form waren.
Did you know?
- While war means 'was', adding an 'e' to make it wäre transforms it into the subjunctive mood, meaning 'would be'.
- In some regions of Northern Germany, speakers use wat instead of was, a feature that mirrors the sounds of Low German and English 'what'.
- German uses was to ask 'what' in a general sense, but switches to welcher when asking 'which' among a specific group of options.
Examples in context
- Ich war oft da.I was often there.This example shows the use of war to indicate being in a place.Tatoeba #970219 by Esperantostern, translation #942450 by spockofvulcan
- Die Tür war zu.The door was closed.This example demonstrates war describing the state of an object.Tatoeba #1513768 by Manfredo, translation #2377197 by megamanenm
- Es war zu spät.It was too late.This example uses war to describe a temporal state.Tatoeba #2153022 by Pfirsichbaeumchen, translation #1235569 by Eldad
- Entschuldigung, was möchten Sie bestellen?Excuse me, what would you like to order?
- Können Sie mir sagen, was Sie über diesen Vorschlag denken? Was meinen Sie?Can you tell me what you think about this proposal? What is your opinion?
- Hey, was machen wir heute Abend?Hey, what are we doing tonight?
- Ich möchte mir ein neues Auto kaufen. Was meinst du?I want to buy a new car. What do you think?
- Wat willst du?What do you want?
- Was ist das?What is that?
- Was hast du gesagt?What did you say?
- Was machst du?What are you doing?
- 9602 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Lukas and Julia are discussing a restaurant they visited.
- LukasWar das Essen gut?Was the food good?
- JuliaJa, es war sehr lecker.Yes, it was very delicious.
- LukasWar der Service auch nett?Was the service also nice?
- JuliaJa, die Kellnerin war sehr freundlich.Yes, the waitress was very friendly.
Sources
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
