🚶❓📍

How to Say ‘How did you get here?’ in German

Wie bist du gekommen?

vee bist doo guh-KOM-en

[vee bist doo guh-KOM-en]

💬 Usage Tip: Verbs of getting somewhere, like kommen and fahren "go, ride", use bin/bist instead of habe/hast to talk about the past. So you say ich bin gekommen, not ich habe gekommen.

Phrase Breakdown

Wie bist du

vee bist doo

How did you

'Wie' means 'how' and sounds like 'vee'. Verbs of movement form the perfect tense with 'sein', so it is 'bist'.

Example

Wie bist du so schnell?

How are you so fast?

Words in this phrase

Wie

[vee]

how

Question word asking about manner or state.

Example

Wie geht es dir?

How are you?

bist

[bist]

are (you are)

Form of 'sein' (to be) used with 'du'.

Example

Du bist mein Freund.

You are my friend.

[doo]

you

The pronoun 'du' in nominative form.

Example

Du bist schön.

You are beautiful.

gekommen?

guh-KOM-en

come (get here)?

The past participle of 'kommen'. Stress the middle syllable: 'ge-KOM-men'.

Example

Er ist spät gekommen.

He came late.

Words in this phrase

gekommen

[guh-KOM-en]

come / arrived

Past participle of 'kommen', used with 'sein' for the perfect tense.

Example

Er ist spät gekommen.

He came late.

Guides for German learners

Duolingo vs Pimsleur: Tapping on a Screen or Talking Out Loud?Duolingo vs Pimsleur: five minutes of tapping versus thirty minutes of speaking. What each is good at, what each costs, and which to pick for your goal.

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