The answer to the respective question (i. "What were you doing while I was sleeping?", or (I am not sure if the terms "topic" and "comment" are used with regard to German grammar at all, but I find them quite helpful)Īnother way to explain this: The sentence you gave as an example could either answer these questions: In more emotional speech, though, we sometimes begin with the "comment". "Neutral" sentences tend to begin with the "topic" (what the sentence is all about) and end with the "comment" (what the sentence is "getting at"), following the "thought flow", as it were. Just in case: German tends to change the word order to emphasize one particular part of the sentence. I'm not sure if your question was about word order as well. ![]() (1) and (2) would probably sound most natural, (3) and (4) might sound rather bookish in this context. ![]() (vocab: während = while | du schliefst = you slept/you were sleeping | habe ich saubergemacht = I cleaned | die Wohnung = the apartment) (4) Ich machte die Wohnung sauber, während du schliefst. (3) Während du schliefst, machte ich die Wohnung sauber. (2) Ich habe die Wohnung sauber gemacht, während du schliefst. (1) Während du schliefst, habe ich die Wohnung sauber gemacht. Instead of the past continuous/progressive we normally use the simple past (Imperfekt). "schlafend sein" is a construction we don't use. ![]() As bearded man pointed out, German doesn't have a direct equivalent to the English continuous/progressive verb forms.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |