So... What are YOU doing? - Part 8

[tango]

Crash course in learning the German language. Over 40 days so far spending at least 2 hours a day learning not only German words, but it's unique sentence structure, pronunciation, spelling and grammar. It's been fun and eye-opening. Sometimes I assumed when reading English translations that stuff may have been mistranslated because words I recognized followed/preceded words I also recognized but didn't match the translation, then found out that German word order can differ significantly from English.

Composing.

Many years ago I at school some German learnt. Or something like that

 

[Stravinsk]

Many years ago I at school some German learnt. Or something like that

Yes. "Mochtest du schwimmen mit mir heute gehen" (umlaut over o in Mochtest my keyboard refuses to do at the moment) = Would you like swimming with me today to go - which is the proper way in German to say it.

This is one of the hardest parts I am finding with the language, where the word order differs. In time perhaps it will get easier for me.

 

[tango]

Yes. "Mochtest du schwimmen mit mir heute gehen" (umlaut over o in Mochtest my keyboard refuses to do at the moment) = Would you like swimming with me today to go - which is the proper way in German to say it.

This is one of the hardest parts I am finding with the language, where the word order differs. In time perhaps it will get easier for me.

It's been a long time since I used German in any meaningful sense. If I recall correctly the verb shifts to the end when it's a secondary verb - in your example the swimming is the primary verb - "going" is almost redundant because "would you like to swim with me today" and "would you like to go swimming with me today" are more or less the same as far as meaning goes.

 

[Stravinsk]

It's been a long time since I used German in any meaningful sense. If I recall correctly the verb shifts to the end when it's a secondary verb - in your example the swimming is the primary verb - "going" is almost redundant because "would you like to swim with me today" and "would you like to go swimming with me today" are more or less the same as far as meaning goes.

Hmm...I haven't found any easy way to know exactly yet. For example:

Wenn Sie eine Katze haben, haben Sie auch eine Maus. "If you have a cat, you'll also have a mouse."

Here the word "haben" (to have) is not exactly a verb, and it still follows the first subject "Katze" (cat) and precedes the second subject "Maus" (Mouse).

 

[tango]

Hmm...I haven't found any easy way to know exactly yet. For example:

Wenn Sie eine Katze haben, haben Sie auch eine Maus. "If you have a cat, you'll also have a mouse."

Here the word "haben" (to have) is not exactly a verb, and it still follows the first subject "Katze" (cat) and precedes the second subject "Maus" (Mouse).

Hm. So much for my good idea

I shouldn't be surprised that it's more complicated than that....