diff --git a/src/plasp/sas/TranslatorASP.cpp b/src/plasp/sas/TranslatorASP.cpp
index 12b3231..4c838a2 100644
--- a/src/plasp/sas/TranslatorASP.cpp
+++ b/src/plasp/sas/TranslatorASP.cpp
@@ -107,9 +107,9 @@ void TranslatorASP::translateVariables() const
 
 			BOOST_ASSERT(!values.empty());
 
-			m_outputStream << std::endl;
+			m_outputStream << std::endl << utils::Keyword("variable") << "(";
 			variable.printNameAsASPPredicate(m_outputStream);
-			m_outputStream << "." << std::endl;
+			m_outputStream << ")." << std::endl;
 
 			std::for_each(values.cbegin(), values.cend(),
 				[&](const auto &value)
diff --git a/src/plasp/sas/Variable.cpp b/src/plasp/sas/Variable.cpp
index 7f90ec2..ec8f121 100644
--- a/src/plasp/sas/Variable.cpp
+++ b/src/plasp/sas/Variable.cpp
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ Variable Variable::fromSAS(utils::Parser<> &parser)
 	Variable variable;
 
 	parser.expect<std::string>("begin_variable");
+	parser.expect<std::string>("var");
 
 	variable.m_name = parser.parse<std::string>();
 	variable.m_axiomLayer = parser.parse<int>();