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When does the verb go in the back German | ||
Tags: Verbs/Conjugation | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| shadowzoid Groupie United States Joined 5493 days ago 76 posts - 85 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 7 13 June 2009 at 7:18pm | IP Logged |
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In the sentence: "I would like to know at what time it will be ready today", why is it "Ich mochte wissen um wie veil Uhr es heute fertig sein wird", instead of "es WIRD heute fertig sein". why does "wird" go to the end? I thought that only happens when "wann" or "weil" starts the clause?
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| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5733 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 2 of 7 13 June 2009 at 8:08pm | IP Logged |
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Seems to happen in pretty much every kind of clause except 'but' and 'den' clauses in German! I think I'm actually starting to get used to it.
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5576 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 3 of 7 13 June 2009 at 8:16pm | IP Logged |
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Almost every dependent clause, almost every sentence with a compound verb. :D
-being helpful- German about.com might have what you need. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5821 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 4 of 7 13 June 2009 at 8:36pm | IP Logged |
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"dependent clause" = something that has a different meaning if you split it off.
whereas "independent clause" = something that keeps its meaning if you split it off. Examples in English: "I need it, but I don't have it." Split it into two sentences: "I need it." (meaning stays the same) "I don't have it." (meaning stays the same) meaning unchanged -> independent clauses "I want to know when it will be ready." Split it into two sentences: "I want to know." (Loses meaning: what do you want to know?, but meaning strictly unchanged.) "It will be ready." (Loses meaning. That wasn't what it said before.) Meaning changed -> dependent clauses "I will come if you ask me to." Split it into two sentences: "I will come." (Now that's a bit more definite than it was....) "You ask me to." (And that's definite too....) meaning changed -> dependent clause And it's in dependent clauses that the German verb goes to the back of the queue. (Interesting, though, is the two "because" thing. "I am here because you asked me to come." Are those clauses dependent or independent? Strictly independent, but German gives you the option to translate it as either dependent or independent. This gives you an extra bit of expressivity.) Edited by Cainntear on 13 June 2009 at 8:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5576 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 5 of 7 13 June 2009 at 8:39pm | IP Logged |
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Hi,
TheBiscuit is most probably right; in almost all cases, the word order changes in some way whenever the verb is not in a main clause. The main clause is normally the first part of the sentence, and the part of the sentence which, if you were to remove it, the sentence would make no sense. Conjunctions are another reason why the verb is sent to the end, although there are many others. Also, all the "w" words which would normally signify a question, change the word order whenever they don't actually signify a question. For example: Ich weiß nicht, was ich heute tun muss. Ich weiß nicht, wie ich am besten zur Bushaltestelle komme. Sie weiß nicht, wer ihr helfen kann. Der Junge hat keine Ahnung, wo er ist. Ich weiß nicht, wohin er fährt. Der Pilot wusste nicht, wann das Flugzeug landen würde. Conjunctions: weil, da - because obwohl, obgleich - although seit(dem) - since nachdem - after (doing something) (an)statt - instead of (doing something) ohne...zu - without (doing something) dass - that selbst wenn - even though auch wenn - even though/even if so dass/damit - so that sobald - as so as Beispiele: Ich studiere Russisch an der Uni, weil ich es meistern will. Ich habe Deutsch gelernt, da ich ein Interesse an der Geschichte des Dritten Reiches habe. Ich werde ins Bett gehen, nachdem ich den Hund gefüttert habe. Ich fahre nie nach einem Land, ohne das Wesentliche der Sprache zu können. Statt ein Glas Bier zu trinken, ziehe ich vor, ein Glas Wasser zu trinken, da ich keinen Alkohol trinke. Note: There are two conjunctions I can think of, which TheBiscuit has already mentioned, to which these rules do not apply - aber and denn - aber means "but", and "denn" is another word for "because". Hope that helps! Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5657 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 7 13 June 2009 at 9:08pm | IP Logged |
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Toll erklärt, LanguageSponge!!!
I fully agree with the explanations and examples LanguageSponge has given. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 13 June 2009 at 9:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5576 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 7 of 7 14 June 2009 at 3:59pm | IP Logged |
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I just thought of another quite important word which sends the verb to the end - another conjunction, "indem".
It corresponds to the expression in English "by doing something". Ich werde die deutsche Sprache meistern, indem ich eines Tages in Deutschland wohnen werde. - I will one day master the German language by living in Germany. Mein Bruder stört mich, indem er laute Musik spielt - my brother is disturbing me by playing loud music. Ich habe meine Prüfungen bestanden, indem ich mich sehr gut auf sie vorbereitet habe - I passed my exams by preparing well for them. Hope that helps. Jack 1 person has voted this message useful |
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