Kyle Corrie Senior Member United States Joined 4830 days ago 175 posts - 464 votes
| Message 1 of 4 14 March 2012 at 1:22am | IP Logged |
Hello all,
My problem is this. I'm trying to find out if anyone knows the specific rule or what
this is actually called.
I imagine most people familiar with German sentence constructions know that typically
when you use a subordinating conjunction then you send the conjugated verb to the end
of the clause.
However, in some situations, you don't. I was wondering if anyone would be able to tell
me what this is called or if they know what the rule is so I can identify it by name.
For example:
(Right way) [...], weil ich ihm das hätte sagen können.
instead of
(Wrong way) [...], weil ich ihm das sagen können hätte.
So... does anyone know why it is constructed like this and/or what it is called? I can
only guess that the conjugated verb must be next to the infinitive. Not sure though.
Edited by Kyle Corrie on 14 March 2012 at 1:26am
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Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4658 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian
| Message 2 of 4 14 March 2012 at 1:57am | IP Logged |
The best explanation in German is here : http://www.mein-deutschbuch.de/lernen.php?menu_id=123#ausnah men - please copy and paste without space.
Edited by Majka on 14 March 2012 at 1:58am
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squeeze Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4877 days ago 32 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German
| Message 3 of 4 14 March 2012 at 3:46pm | IP Logged |
@Majka nice resource, thanks.
@Kyle Corrie
When there is a Double Infinitive at the end of a subordinate clause instead of the finite verb going at the end, it must be inserted in front.
The only exception being when the auxilliary is lassen, hören or sehen and their infinitive is not representing a past participle.
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outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4950 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean
| Message 4 of 4 14 March 2012 at 9:25pm | IP Logged |
Yes, the rule is when there are two infinitives, then the conjugated verb must come before twe two infinitives. This will occur with modal auxiliaries conjugated in a compound tense, that already have a dependent verb (mostly the Konjunktiv II, since there there is only one past tense and it is a compound tense), and the future tense with werden + dependent verb + auxiliary infinitive.
What confused me at one point is remembering this rule does not apply in the passive voice, since a construction like *past participle + worden* is not a double infinitive, thus "ist/sind" still goes at the end and not before the dependent verbs.
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