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Wann bist du geboren? (German) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5728 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 25 of 71 12 January 2014 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yeah, sorry about that. I've edited my post. Thanks. Regarding whether it might be a shortened version of "Wann bist du geboren worden?" . I guess that might solve the mystery, as you say, but does that kind of shortened version happen with any other verbs tat you know of? I'd be a lot more convinced if it did. Edited by Random review on 12 January 2014 at 6:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4789 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 26 of 71 12 January 2014 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Moreover, one can say: "Das Kind ist geboren", which translates to "The child has been/is born". Confer: "Uns ist ein Kind geboren" = "Unto us a child is born". So, why not ask "Wann bist du geboren?". It doesn't seem so odd, does it?
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| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5728 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 27 of 71 12 January 2014 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
It still does, though: Das Kind ist geboren = the child is (in a state of being) born, which makes perfect sense. Wann bist du geboren = when are you in a state of being born, which makes no sense to me. Edited by Random review on 12 January 2014 at 6:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4789 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 28 of 71 12 January 2014 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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No, you're misunderstanding the construction. "Zustandspassiv" describes a result and not an ongoing process. The latter is expressed by "Vorgangspassiv":
Das Kind ist geboren. = The child has been born. (It's in the state of having been born) Das Kind wird geboren. = The child is being born. (It's in the process of being born) Edited by Josquin on 12 January 2014 at 6:18pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5728 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 29 of 71 12 January 2014 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
I haven't misunderstood- I just expressed myself ambiguously: I meant "in a state of being born" in the sense of "in a state of having been born" (in the sense of "he is now born"); not in the sense of "in the process of being born". I should have expressed myself more exactly and unambiguously. Edited by Random review on 12 January 2014 at 6:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4652 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 30 of 71 12 January 2014 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Why? You're alive, so you have been born. Nothing weird about that construction - in fact
I would probably even use "Wann sind Sie/bist du geboren" because it translates so directly from Dutch. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4789 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 31 of 71 12 January 2014 at 6:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Okay, I think it's just colloquial language where the "worden" can be omitted. There are more examples for this:
Wann bist du geboren (worden)? Wann ist das Haus gebaut (worden)? Wann bist du getauft (worden)? Wo ist er begraben (worden)? Edited by Josquin on 12 January 2014 at 6:26pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5728 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 32 of 71 12 January 2014 at 6:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
It doesn't normally work that way with resultant states, though. If you are talking to someone who is ill, you wouldn't ask them "when are you ill?" but rather "when did you fall/get ill?". 1 person has voted this message useful |
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