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Questions about the book "Verblendung". | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| blackverve Senior Member Canada Joined 4722 days ago 40 posts - 46 votes Studies: German | Message 1 of 8 12 February 2012 at 3:54am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've decided that the German version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Steig Larsson. would be the first book I read since it's written in modern German; it's readily available and it's got an audiobook. Now I just have to find a listening-reading system for visual learners...but before that I have some things I'm curious about before I frustrate myself:
a) What level of language do you think it's written in? Advanced? b) Does it use the most recent spelling changes or the old ones? c) Does it use the dative case or that accusative grammar case? Great I forgot which one is the newer one. I plan on doing an Intensive read as I used to do in English so I want to know what I'll be learning. Any advice? I'm a total beginner but I plan to read the English alongside the German. So, can anyone who has read the book enlighten me? Edited by Fasulye on 17 February 2012 at 10:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5589 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes  | Message 2 of 8 12 February 2012 at 6:08am | IP Logged | |||||
Not always. Sometimes the nominative and genitive case may be used, too ;-) PS. The first edition was published in 1996, the year of the reform, so I suppose it uses the form of orthography of recent date. Edited by Cabaire on 12 February 2012 at 6:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| blackverve Senior Member Canada Joined 4722 days ago 40 posts - 46 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 8 12 February 2012 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
Oh, Cabaire you've got the wrong book. It this book: http://www.amazon.de/Verblendung-Stieg-Larsson/dp/3453432452 /ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329058450&sr=1-1#_ It was first published in 2005 in Swedish and then in German in 2006. Have you read it? Well, I was curious about the grammar as German grammar is in transition I heard. One case won't be used anymore. I forgot the case names. Edited by blackverve on 12 February 2012 at 4:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kat0 Diglot Groupie Austria Joined 4700 days ago 89 posts - 97 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Mandarin, Bengali, Russian, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 8 12 February 2012 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hm... as Cabaire has mentioned before, there have been some changes in German orthography in the last years.
But I haven't heard anything about any of the German cases not being used anymore - maybe you mean that with some prepositions (e.g. "wegen") the dative case is mostly being used today instead of the genitive case? In general, I can assure you, all of the cases are still in use and I can't imagine how or why that should change. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| blackverve Senior Member Canada Joined 4722 days ago 40 posts - 46 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 8 13 February 2012 at 12:14am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, that's it! The dative and genitive thing! How many words does that affect? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mani Diglot Senior Member Germany imsprachendickicht.b Joined 4895 days ago 258 posts - 323 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, Welsh, Luxembourgish | Message 6 of 8 13 February 2012 at 10:03am | IP Logged | |||||
In literature probably none, at least at the moment. You might find it in a contemporary novel when people use common speech, but I think that's still rare in written language. It's much more likely that you'll find dative case instead of genitive case in a newspaper, especially online. And it's a more common phenomenon in spoken language, but it isn't standard yet (Thank goodness! - I like my genitive case). You won't find dative instead of genitive in Stieg Larsson's books, the translation is written in modern orthography (whatever that means 'cause you're quite free in choosing how to write at the moment). Edited by Mani on 13 February 2012 at 10:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5589 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 7 of 8 13 February 2012 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This is a very specialised topic.
You may say things like "binnen kurzem" but "binnen eines Monats", "ich bin außer mir", but "ich gehe außer Landes", "mangels schlüssiger Beweise", but "mangels Beweisen". Sometimes it is a question of idiom, sometimes a questionof style, sometimes your personal choice, sometimes colloquial, sometimes depending on the failing difference between nominative and genitive wheather we use genitive or dative after certain prepositions. It seems a bit chaotic at times. But 98% of its usage is streightforward. Edited by Cabaire on 13 February 2012 at 12:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Christine Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 6616 days ago 41 posts - 47 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Japanese, Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 8 03 March 2012 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The most important example of that varying usage of dative or genitive case is the preposition "wegen" (because of). This is the one you will most likely stumble across.
Colloquial: Ich konnte wegen dem Streik (dative) bei der Bahn nicht früher kommen. Standard German: Ich konnte wegen des Streiks (genitive) bei der Bahn nicht früher kommen. When speaking, I almost exclusively use the dative case in cases like this - but my German is influenced by the dialect of Bavarian Swabia, and many (if not most) Southern German dialects don't use the genitive at all, so employing it with "wegen" would sound kind of artificial. In writing, I always use the genitive, and I try to do so when speaking to people from other parts of Germany, but I still have to cross some kind of psychological threshold to do so. ;) By the way, there is a famous scene about the whole "wegen" thing in the 1944 Heinz Rühmann film "Die Feuerzangenbowle". A student runs up to the teachers' room to inform them that some sign has been hung up in front of the school building. They won't listen to him, so he exclaims: "Aber ... wegen dem Schild!" One of the teachers then snaps at him: "Wegen DES SchilDES!" It's a classic scene that many Germans know (but it doesn't prevent them from using the dative). ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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