German: wünschen (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

German: wünschen
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10 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

Gemuse
Senior Member
Germany
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Studies: German

Message 9 of 10

01 June 2014 at 1:59am | IP Logged

Gemuse wrote:

3. And finally, instead of
Ich wünschte mir, du wärest an meinem Geburstag hier.
Is the following better:
Ich würde mich sehr freuen, du wärest an meinem Geburstag hier.

Bao wrote:

3. Konjunktiv
'ich wünschte mir' means something different from 'ich wünsche mir', and so it can't be
replaced by phrases that mean 'ich wünsche mir'.

Thanks for the explanations. Could you elaborate on the last point?
According to my (mis?)understanding, 'ich wünschte mir' means I am wishing for
something that is not real. Doesnt "Ich würde mich sehr freuen," do the same thing? It
(something irreal, and hence Konjuctive II) would make me happy....

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Bao
Diglot
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Germany
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Speaks: German*, English
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Message 10 of 10

01 June 2014 at 9:42pm | IP Logged

No, it doesn't do the same thing.
"Ich würde mich sehr freuen, wenn" means that you don't know if something will happen a certain way, but you hope or desire that it does.
If you want to express irrealis, you'd have to use something like 'ich hätte mich gefreut' and 'wenn das passiert wäre' in spoken German.
'du wärest' is written register and sounds old-fashioned and forcedly poetic to me.
I'd say 'wenn du gekommen wärst' and also write it in a letter.
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