German Phrase
Das Paket ist gestern angekommen.
Meaning
The sentence means ‘The package arrived yesterday.’ It uses the perfect tense with the auxiliary ‘sein’ to describe a completed action that happened in the recent past.
When to use
Use this sentence when you want to tell someone that a delivery has already been received, for example in a conversation with a friend, a colleague, or a customer service representative.
✦Grammar Breakdown
DasPaketistgesternangekommen.
Definite article (Das)
‘Das’ is the neuter nominative singular article, used here because ‘Paket’ is a neuter noun.
Noun gender (Paket)
‘Paket’ is a neuter noun (das Paket); its case is nominative as the subject of the sentence.
Auxiliary verb (ist)
In the perfect tense, motion verbs like ‘ankommen’ take ‘sein’ as the auxiliary.
Adverb of time (gestern)
‘Gestern’ means ‘yesterday’ and is placed after the auxiliary verb in a typical perfect‑tense word order.
Past participle (angekommen)
‘Angekommen’ is the past participle of ‘ankommen’; together with ‘sein’ it forms the perfect tense.
🗨In Conversation
Ist das Paket schon da?
Is the package already here?
Ja, das Paket ist gestern angekommen.
Yes, the package arrived yesterday.
✕Common Mistakes
Das Paket hat gestern angekommen.
‘Ankommen’ uses ‘sein’ as its auxiliary, not ‘haben’.
Gestern angekommen ist das Paket.
While grammatically possible, this word order sounds overly formal and is rarely used in everyday speech.
↔Alternatives
Das Paket kam gestern an.
The package came yesterday.
Das Paket wurde gestern zugestellt.
The package was delivered yesterday.
Gestern ist das Paket angekommen.
Yesterday the package arrived.
Cultural Tip
In German, most verbs that describe a change of location or state (like ‘ankommen’, ‘gehen’, ‘werden’) form the perfect with ‘sein’ instead of ‘haben’. Also, placing the time adverb ‘gestern’ after the auxiliary verb is the most natural word order, though you can move it to the front for emphasis.