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German: Making sense of word order. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| arkady Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States rightconditi Joined 5399 days ago 54 posts - 61 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian* Studies: German | Message 17 of 33 10 March 2010 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I thought it was 'must' as I have seen it as just Muss before, but the literal translation did not contain it - glad you clarified it.
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| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5380 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 18 of 33 10 March 2010 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
Though I haven't studied German in a long time, I don't think I ever realized that inversion was necessary when the subordinate clause came first. I'm glad you gave that intricate example! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| arkady Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States rightconditi Joined 5399 days ago 54 posts - 61 votes Speaks: English*, Russian* Studies: German | Message 19 of 33 10 March 2010 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually, come to think of it - I have no idea why 'habe' is placed at the end inside the first clause. Its one of two verbs in that clause, why is it not in the 2nd position? Is it because it IS a subclause? So if it was just a stand alone sentence it would be: Wenn habe ich heute das Essen gekocht. Edited by arkady on 10 March 2010 at 8:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5380 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 20 of 33 10 March 2010 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
The fact that it starts with Wenn makes it indeed a subordinate clause, even though it comes first. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6469 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 21 of 33 10 March 2010 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"When I have cooked the meal today" is not a complete sentence in English either. You'd
always ask yourself "then what?". This is the clear indicator that it's a subclause. Subclauses can't stand alone, there has to be a main clause. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| arkady Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States rightconditi Joined 5399 days ago 54 posts - 61 votes Speaks: English*, Russian* Studies: German | Message 22 of 33 10 March 2010 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I thought Wenn is used as 'if' and Wann was used as 'when'?
But I see your point anyway. So lets say we get rid of Wenn. Would this be right? Ich habe heute das Essen gekocht. I have cooked the meal? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6438 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 23 of 33 10 March 2010 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, that's a quite typical sentence. It has one clause and two verbs; the first is in the second position, and the second verb is at the end. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5380 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 24 of 33 10 March 2010 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The only time a verb will move out of the final verb position is when it is conjugated in a main clause.
(minus the occasional breach of that rule in oral) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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