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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 17 of 25 26 October 2014 at 10:43am | IP Logged | ||||||||
In the latest issue of die Zeit there is a story discussing the issues raised by Apple and Facebook's recent decision to pay for the freezing of female employees' eggs. There was one sentence:
which makes perfect sense, but I am having trouble understanding it grammatically. What I would have written is something more like:
or
I like the original sentence better, but don't understand the rules around how to construct it. Edited by patrickwilken on 26 October 2014 at 10:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 18 of 25 26 October 2014 at 12:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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You would do the same in English: "When an account at the egg cell bank is as normal as a bank account at a regular bank (is normal)"... You leave out the "so normal ist" the second time because it's superfluous. It's already been said, so why repeat it? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 19 of 25 26 October 2014 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
So in that situation you just omit the comma between "ist" and "wie" and just make it into one big clause? Edited by patrickwilken on 26 October 2014 at 3:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4522 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 20 of 25 26 October 2014 at 2:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It's just a comparison construction, you don't need a subordinate clause for it, so yes,
make it a big main clause. compare: Er ist [stärker als] Hulk. Er ist [so stark wie] Hulk. now putting it in an initial subordinate clause like your example: Wenn er stärker als Hulk ist, dann ... Wenn er so stark wie Hulk ist, dann ... now you can go one step further and use extraposition (especially when you would have a heavy noun phrase instead of just Hulk): Wenn er stärker ist als Hulk, dann ... Wenn er so stark ist wie Hulk, dann ... It works pretty much in the same way. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3908 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 21 of 25 27 October 2014 at 1:16am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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2 Questions:
====1==== In FSI they have sentences such as: "Ich fahre zu der Bank in der Bahnhofstrasse" and "Vorher möchte ich noch zur Bank gehen" In the first one, I would think you could just use zur instead of zu der. Is there a difference between these or are they just giving different ways it can be said? Would it be okay to just say zur in both cases? ====2==== Also in FSI, they have a drill with: "Die Haltestelle ist da drüber. Sie ist da drüben." and another with: "Wo ist die Strassenbahnhaltestelle? Die ist hier ganz in der Nähe." What is the difference between using sie and die in these sentences? Would it be alright to also say Die ist da drüben/Sie ist hier ganz in der Nähe? Edited by soclydeza85 on 27 October 2014 at 1:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4522 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 22 of 25 27 October 2014 at 1:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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zur is just a contraction of zu der, so yes, you can use it in both cases, there's no
difference. But only with "zu der" can you use prosody to let "der" act as a demonstrative determiner (this/that) instead of just an article. I think that's how they intended it in the first sentence. If "der" is stressed, it doesn't get contracted. "Die Haltestelle ist da drüben. Sie ist da drüben." Here you are substituting the noun with a pronoun, and the personal pronoun is "sie". "die" would sound at least odd, except if you are pointing at it. "Wo ist die Strassenbahnhaltestelle? Die ist hier ganz in der Nähe." I think it's meant as answering the question by a second person. "die" is acting as a demonstrative pronoun here. It's like: "Where is the tram stop? - The tram stop? It's close by." Using "sie" should be possible, but "die" sounds better. If the second sentence would be uttered by the one seeking for help, like an additional information, you would be using "sie". "Wo ist die Strassenbahnhaltestelle? Sie müsste hier ganz in der Nähe sein." Edited by daegga on 27 October 2014 at 1:54am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3908 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 23 of 25 27 October 2014 at 2:21am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Okay, that makes sense. So would it be something like: Ich fahre zur Bank in der Bahnhofstrasse -I'm going to the bank on Bahnhoffstrasse (just generally speaking) Ich fahre zu der Bank in der Bahnhofstrasse (Calling attention to a specific bank, maybe pointing to it on a map or otherwise understood from context) ======= So... "Sie ist da drüben" would be like saying (generally) "It is down/over there" and "Die ist da drüben" would be like saying "THAT is down/over there" (almost like saying "Oh, you mean that bus stop? THAT is down/over there"). Do I have that right? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3908 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 24 of 25 03 January 2015 at 1:29am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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For the FSI Drills, they have:
"Ich habe meine Zigaretten nicht bei mir." - Bei is a dative preposition so using mir makes perfect sense to me. But then they have: "Herr Muller hat seine Zigaretten nicht bei sich." and the same with "meine Frau - bei sich" and so on. If bei is a dative preposition, shouldn't it be "Herr Muller - bei ihm", "meine Frau - bei ihr", "sie - bei ihnen" and so on? Edited by soclydeza85 on 03 January 2015 at 1:30am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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