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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Swiper Newbie United States Joined 4975 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes | Message 1 of 3 06 June 2011 at 11:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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When the konjunctiv "Seien" is used in the imperative, is it meant to denote obligation? LIke, you are telling the
person that they should, or should not do somethng. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5324 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes  Speaks: German*, English | Message 2 of 3 07 June 2011 at 7:04am | IP Logged | ||
Yes. For example: Seien Sie still! = Be quiet. It's also used in a couple of idiomatic expressions. For example: Seien Sie unbesorgt! = Don't worry. Seien Sie pünktlich! = Please be on time. For more examples see Linguee. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tbone Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4995 days ago 92 posts - 132 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 3 of 3 07 June 2011 at 7:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Took me a while to understand that question. "Sei/Seid/Seien" isn't a conjunctive used in the imperative, it's the
imperative form of 'to be', period (yes, the spelling happens to match the Konjunctiv I). And imperative means command, so it's literally "Be ...!" Most common usage I ran into: "Seid ruhig, bitte!" Yeah, maybe we weren't the best-behaved class... Forgive me if I really went into the weeds there, just thought I saw an additional issue. Edited by tbone on 07 June 2011 at 3:53pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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