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German: Is the konjunctiv correct here? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Irchard Tetraglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5250 days ago 9 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Dutch, French | Message 1 of 4 17 June 2011 at 3:38am | IP Logged | |||||
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[posted this in the German forum as well, but it looks kinda quiet over there]
Ich hoffe, dass Du einen schönen Geburtstag hattest. Should it not just be hast? (or maybe even habest?) It's a very long time since I studied German and if I was to read any one of those 3 alternatives it would not strike me as an error, and looking at it now I have no intuitive feeling as to which is correct! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes  Speaks: German*, English | Message 2 of 4 17 June 2011 at 7:43am | IP Logged | |||||
The German forum is for post in German only.
That depends on what you meant to say in English. Ich hoffe, dass Du einen schönen Geburtstag hattest. = I hope you had a nice birthday. BTW, "Du habest" is rarely heard in spoken German; it's usually replaced with "Du hättest" (Konjunktiv II). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 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 3 of 4 18 June 2011 at 2:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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But ''hattest'' is not a konjunctiv, it's the simple past: you had. The subjunctive would be called in perhaps this situation:
Ich wünschte, du hättest einen schönen Geburtstag... (I wish you would have a nice birthday...) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 4 of 4 18 June 2011 at 7:50am | IP Logged | |||||
Indeedy. As you might have found out by now, there are some subtle differences between the German Konjunktiv and the English Subjunctive.
The German sentence is technically correct, but since it would refer to an event that is unlikely to happen, nobody would use it for birthday wishes. We would simply use the Indicative mood: Ich wünsche Dir einen schönen Geburtstag. BTW, in other sentences with the same structure, I'd usually use the Sinmple Past in English: Ich wünschte Du hättest mehr Zeit. = I wish you had more time. Ich wünschte Du hättest Recht.= I wish you were right. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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