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From Feuer nicht unter Kontrolle: Waldbrände im Hohen Venn und im Schwarzwald, tagesschau.de, 17 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
Most of them are said to have found shelter with friends or relatives.
Word for word: The most were with friends or relatives under-come.
This is journalistic reported speech (indirect quotation without quotation marks): according to some source, most of the people mentioned have been put up by friends or relatives. Common in news writing.
A statement in reported speech: the finite verb 'seien' is the third-person plural subjunctive one (Konjunktiv I) of 'sein', used to mark that the speaker is relaying someone else's claim. The perfect infinitive 'untergekommen' combines with 'sein' as a double-infinitive-style perfect construction typical of reported speech. 'Die meisten' is an adjective used as a noun serving as subject; 'bei' governs the dative, so 'Freunden' and 'Verwandten' are dative plural.
Rules at work(6)
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seien
The subjunctive one form 'seien' marks the content as reported speech from another source, standard in news style.
Reported speech in journalism and formal writing. It is built from the infinitive stem, and where its form would be identical to the ordinary present, Konjunktiv II is used instead to keep the reporting visible.
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seien ... untergekommen
The intransitive verb of motion 'unterkommen' forms its perfect with 'sein', here as a perfect infinitive in reported speech.
Verbs of motion from one place to another and verbs of change of state take sein rather than haben in the perfect, along with sein, werden and bleiben themselves. Er ist gegangen, not er hat gegangen.
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untergekommen
The participle of the separable verb 'unterkommen' shows the prefix first with ge- inserted before the stem.
Some verbs carry a prefix that detaches in a main clause and moves to the very end: aufstehen becomes Ich stehe um sieben auf. The prefix is stressed, which is what tells a separable prefix from an inseparable one. In a subordinate clause and in the infinitive the verb stays whole.
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bei Freunden oder Verwandten
'bei' governs the dative, so both nouns appear in dative plural (-n endings).
Aus, außer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von and zu always take the dative. Several of them contract with the article: von dem becomes vom, zu der becomes zur.
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Die meisten ... Verwandten
'die meisten' and 'Verwandten' are adjectives used as nouns, capitalised and declined like adjectives.
An adjective can be capitalised and used as a noun, and it goes on taking adjective endings: der Alte, ein Alter, etwas Neues.
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Die meisten seien
In this main-clause statement the finite verb stands in second position after the subject phrase.
In a German main clause the finite verb is always the second element. The first element can be the subject, but it can just as easily be a time expression, an object or a whole subordinate clause; whatever it is, it counts as one element and the verb follows it. This is why putting something other than the subject first pushes the subject after the verb.
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Words(8)
- die
the
determinerA1definite
- meist
most, most of them
adjectiveB1
As a substantivised superlative, 'die meisten' means 'most people / most of them'.
- sein
to be
verbA1sein, war, ist gewesenmit seinirregular
Copula here linking subject to predicate noun.
- bei
at, near, with
prepositionA2governs dative
'bei 42 Prozent' = 'at 42 percent', standard in poll reporting.
- der Freund
friend
nounA1pl. Freundegen. Freundesmixed declension
- oder
or
conjunctionA1coordinating
- der Verwandte
relatives, relations
nounA2pl. Verwandtengen. Verwandtenadjectival declension
- unterkommen
to find shelter, to be put up, to find accommodation
verbC1unterkommen, kam unter, ist untergekommenmit seinseparablestrong