Subordinate clause of "I thought" (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Subordinate clause of "I thought"
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11 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

tarvos
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Message 9 of 11

16 October 2013 at 9:50pm | IP Logged

Josquin wrote:

tarvos wrote:

In German speech I would basically never use a
subjunctive unless I was in a very formal setting. That never happens so I always go
for an indicative in speech (also because I am too lazy to learn the subjunctive
forms). However in writing I would go for a subjunctive always.

This is true for the present subjunctive (Konjunktiv I), which is only used in formal
or written language, but the past subjunctive (Konjunktiv II) is very common in
colloquial language, especially "wäre". So if you can't produce it, you will at least
need to be able to recognize it, which may be difficult because of the typical vowel
gradation of strong verbs.

I can produce and recognise wäre but I tend to avoid it in speech (I do understand
people using a subjunctive no problem). There are some other common ones that I also
use, such as werden's forms, haben's forms and so on.
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1e4e6
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Message 10 of 11

16 October 2013 at 10:54pm | IP Logged

I am not sure if I understand the question correctly, but in Dutch I think one can say,
"Ik dacht dat het vandaag dinsdag was" and correspondingly, "Ik dacht dat het vandaag
dinsdag is". But I do not think the conjunctive is used, i.e., "Ik dacht dat het vandaag
dinsdag ware" or "Ik dacht dat het vandaag dinsdag zij", which to me I have never seen in
this context, and probably sounds quite weird, whereby the latter sounds especially odd.

Edited by 1e4e6 on 16 October 2013 at 10:58pm
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tarvos
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Message 11 of 11

16 October 2013 at 11:22pm | IP Logged

The latter you can't say. I would never use a present in direct speech in Dutch. A past
is accurate.

No, the conjunctive per se is not used anymore. But there are expressions (set phrases)
where you have to use a conjunctive form "ware het niet dat..." "het zij zo" "god zij
dank" "Moge dat bewaarheid worden" etc.

Edited by tarvos on 16 October 2013 at 11:22pm

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