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Opening sentence of Zwei Tote, hohe Sachschäden: Schwere Unwetter in Teilen Deutschlands, tagesschau.de, 20 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
Torn-off walls, stripped roofs, uprooted trees – violent storms have caused severe damage in several federal states.
Word for word: Away-torn walls, uncovered roofs, uprooted trees – heavy storms have heavy damages in several federal-states caused.
A news-style report listing storm damage: violent storms have wreaked severe damage across several German federal states.
The sentence opens with three noun phrases built on past participles used attributively (weggerissene, abgedeckte, entwurzelte), each with the strong adjective ending -e because there is no article. After the dash, a main clause follows with verb-second order: the subject 'heftige Unwetter' fills the first position, the auxiliary 'haben' is conjugated second, and the past participle 'angerichtet' of the separable verb 'anrichten' closes the clause, forming the perfect tense with haben. 'in mehreren Bundesländern' is a dative prepositional phrase indicating location.
Rules at work(10)
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Weggerissene, abgedeckte, entwurzelte, angerichtet
Four past participles appear: three attributively and one closing the perfect tense.
A weak verb forms its participle as ge plus stem plus t, a strong verb as ge plus a often changed stem plus en. Verbs with an inseparable prefix and verbs ending in ieren take no ge at all.
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haben ... angerichtet
The transitive verb anrichten forms the perfect with haben, participle at the end.
The perfect is the ordinary spoken past. It is built from the present of haben in second position and the past participle at the end of the clause. Most verbs take haben, including every verb with a direct object and every reflexive verb.
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Weggerissene Wände, heftige Unwetter, schwere Schäden
Articleless adjective and participle phrases take strong endings (-e).
With no article in front of it the adjective has to carry the case marking itself, so it takes the endings the definite article would have had, with the exception of the masculine and neuter genitive singular.
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Weggerissene Wände, abgedeckte Dächer, entwurzelte Bäume
Past participles modify nouns attributively like adjectives.
Both participles can stand before a noun and take ordinary adjective endings. The past participle is passive in sense, the present participle active: das gekochte Ei against das kochende Wasser.
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angerichtet
anrichten is separable; its prefix an reattaches in the past participle.
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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heftige Unwetter haben
The subject occupies the first position and the finite verb comes second.
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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in mehreren Bundesländern
'in' takes the dative for location: mehreren Bundesländern.
The dative marks the indirect object, usually the person something is given, said or shown to. A number of common verbs take a dative object where English would use a direct one, and several prepositions always take it.
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in mehreren Bundesländern
'in' governs dative here because it expresses where, not whither.
An, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor and zwischen take the accusative when the phrase answers where to, and the dative when it answers where. The distinction is movement across a boundary against position, not motion against stillness.
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schwere Schäden
Schäden is the direct object of anrichten and stands in the accusative.
The accusative marks the direct object: the thing the action is done to. Only the masculine changes visibly, from der to den and from ein to einen, which is why the masculine is where accusative errors show.
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Bundesländern
Bundesland is a compound of Bund and Länder.
German builds long nouns by joining shorter ones. The last part carries the gender and the plural, and everything before it modifies what follows, so a compound is read from the right.
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Words(15)
- weggerissen
torn off, ripped away
adjectiveC1
Past participle of wegreißen used only attributively here.
- die Wand
wall
nounA1pl. Wändegen. Wandstrong declension
- abgedeckt
stripped, roofed over, covered
adjectiveB2
From abdecken; here it means roofs have been torn off.
- das Dach
roof
nounA2pl. Dächergen. Dachesstrong declension
- entwurzelt
uprooted
adjectiveC1
- der Baum
tree
nounA1pl. Bäumegen. Baumesstrong declension
- heftig
violent, severe, intense
adjectiveB1heftiger, am heftigsten
- das Unwetter
storm, severe weather
nounB1pl. Unwettergen. Unwettersstrong declension
- haben
to have
verbA1haben, hatte, hat gehabtmit habenirregular
As an auxiliary it forms the perfect tenses of most verbs.
- schwer
heavy, severe, difficult
adjectiveA2schwerer, am schwersten
- der Schaden
damage, harm, loss
nounB1pl. Schädengen. Schadensstrong declension
- in
in, into
prepositionA1governs accusative or dative
Dative for location, accusative for direction.
- mehrere
several
determinerA2quantifier
- das Bundesland
federal state (of Germany)
nounB1pl. Bundesländergen. Bundeslandesmixed declension
- anrichten
to cause, to wreak
verbC1anrichten, richtete an, hat angerichtetmit habenseparableweakauf + accusative
Almost always fixed to Schäden: Schäden anrichten = to cause damage.