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Yet another question about German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| customic Tetraglot Groupie PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5822 days ago 44 posts - 66 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian | Message 9 of 14 09 February 2009 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I'm sorry for that, but I have one more query concerning word order (probably I
am still not enough into German syntax): I have written sentence like that: Meine Schwester fängt an, täglich um 8 Uhr zu arbeiten. Two versions of this sentence proposed in my book are: Meine Schwester fängt täglich um 8 Uhr zu arbeiten an. Meine Schwester fängt täglich um 8 Uhr an zu arbeiten. And I must confess that I became rather confused by these two answers. I do know, that the verb "anfangen" is trennbar, so it usually becomes divided into two parts, while the first part goes at the end of the sentence, or the part of the sentence in which it appears. With this construction "zu + Infinitiv" it seems to be a bit more complicated... Is my version of the sentence totally incorrect? And if yes, why? Sorry for asking so many questions about grammar, but I have no one to ask them, because I study German only on my own and I would really like to learn how to avoid making such mistakes, especially with syntax. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alpha Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5740 days ago 22 posts - 27 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Japanese, Polish, Greek | Message 10 of 14 10 February 2009 at 4:04am | IP Logged | ||
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There's nothing wrong with your "anfangen" rather than with the position of "täglich" and the comma.
Your sentence means something like "my sister is starting (or starts) to work (from now on) daily/every day at 8 o'clock". I added "from now on" because your sentence implies that she hasn't been working at all before or that there is a change about her working days. The other two mean "my sister starts to work at 8 o'clock every day". So she regularly starts her work at this time. Grammatically your sentence is all right, just the meaning is a bit different from those two other sentences. Well, as a native speaker I can't really explain German grammar. So maybe there is someone else who learned the language and knows a grammatical rule for that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| customic Tetraglot Groupie PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5822 days ago 44 posts - 66 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian | Message 11 of 14 24 April 2009 at 12:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Instead of starting a new thread, I'll use this one to ask yet another question.
On one of my examination papers I have such a sentence: "Bis Ende ________ Jahre des 20. Jahrhunderts lebten noch nicht einmal mehr 1000 Tiere." I had 4 options to choose from and I thought the correct answer was der sechzige, while, in fact, it should be der sechziger. I just cannot understand what's the reason for such an ending here. I thought that when we have a noun in plural form (Jahre) with a definite article, then all adjectives with it should have a -n ending. In fact, there were no such an answer there, so I chose the one that seemed to me it would be OK and that's why I am surprised that it should be der sechziger. Could anyone explain it to me, please? Edited by customic on 24 April 2009 at 12:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rabyte Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5972 days ago 44 posts - 46 votes Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Spanish, Hindi | Message 12 of 14 24 April 2009 at 2:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes you're right. Usually it should be an -n ending.
Like: Die schönen/wilden/glorreichen Jahre But "Die Sechziger" (the sixties) is like an standing expression. I guess it's more a compound noun than an adjective Der Mann ist in seinen Dreißigern (the man is in his thirties) would be an example that fits into your -n theorie :) I got no better explanation right now..sorry 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6845 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 13 of 14 24 April 2009 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | ||
Also the adjectives derived from names of city don't change: Berliner, Warschauer, Moskauer etc.: die Berliner Mauer, mit der Berliner Mauer.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| customic Tetraglot Groupie PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5822 days ago 44 posts - 66 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian | Message 14 of 14 25 April 2009 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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OK, thank you for your comments - so I'll just have to remember that it is the right
way to say it: die Sechziger :) thanks again! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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