German Grammar Question

General discussion about learning languages
DXB_Maus
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2021 12:15 am
Languages: English(N)

German Grammar Question

Postby DXB_Maus » Sat Oct 16, 2021 12:18 am

Hello,

what is the difference between;

Also ich habe es fertig.

or

Also habe ich es fertig.

Danke ^^
0 x

User avatar
daegga
Blue Belt
Posts: 560
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2015 12:00 am
Location: Upper Austria
Languages: Bavarian (spoken), German
-- ≥ C1 passive --
English (IELTS 8.5)
Scandinavian (a: N>D>S)
-- along the way --
French, Italian
-- can read with dict --
Old Norse
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17055
x 951
Contact:

Re: German Grammar Question

Postby daegga » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:34 am

1a. alright, I'm done (comma after also!)
1b. ergo I'm done (colon after also!)
2. thus/therefore I'm done

the first sentence is ungrammatical as written, the main clause starts with "ich", German is strictly V2

"das topologische Feldermodell" should explain it in grammatical terms
2 x
jag nöjer mig med tystnad

Doitsujin
Green Belt
Posts: 402
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N)
x 801

Re: German Grammar Question

Postby Doitsujin » Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:10 pm

IMHO, "ich habe es fertig" sounds somewhat colloquial to me. Depending on the intended meaning, I'd use "ich bin [damit] fertig" or "ich habe es fertig gemacht."

I'd interpret your example sentences as follows:

Also ich bin [damit] fertig. [Aber X muss es noch machen.] => I am done [with it]. [However, X still needs to do it.]

Also bin ich [damit] fertig. => In that case/Hence/Therefore, I'm done [with it].

For more examples, see this StackExchange post.
2 x

Doitsujin
Green Belt
Posts: 402
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N)
x 801

Re: German Grammar Question

Postby Doitsujin » Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:22 pm

daegga wrote:the first sentence is ungrammatical as written, the main clause starts with "ich", German is strictly V2
I disagree. Speakers can front-shift words for emphasis in German (and English).

daegga wrote:"das topologische Feldermodell" should explain it in grammatical terms
I don't think that mentioning high-level grammar concepts to language learners is overly helpful.
0 x

User avatar
Iversen
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4768
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:36 pm
Location: Denmark
Languages: Monolingual travels in Danish, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian and (part time) Esperanto
Ahem, not yet: Norwegian, Afrikaans, Platt, Scots, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Irish, Indonesian and a few more...
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1027
x 14962

Re: German Grammar Question

Postby Iversen » Sat Oct 16, 2021 7:40 pm

The essence of the relevant part of the topological field model is that if you put something heavy at the beginning of a sentence the subject (which normally would be there) has a strong tendency to move away.

However I would venture the theory that the "also" in the first sentence isn't really a part of the sentence - with certain intonations (or punctuations) it has the same value as "now look here" in English, and then you can have a full sentence without inversion after it.
2 x

User avatar
daegga
Blue Belt
Posts: 560
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2015 12:00 am
Location: Upper Austria
Languages: Bavarian (spoken), German
-- ≥ C1 passive --
English (IELTS 8.5)
Scandinavian (a: N>D>S)
-- along the way --
French, Italian
-- can read with dict --
Old Norse
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17055
x 951
Contact:

Re: German Grammar Question

Postby daegga » Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:39 pm

Doitsujin wrote:
daegga wrote:"das topologische Feldermodell" should explain it in grammatical terms
I don't think that mentioning high-level grammar concepts to language learners is overly helpful.


I for one find such tables very illustrative:
https://lehrerfortbildung-bw.de/u_sprac ... dermodell/
They also exist for Scandinavian languages and are used in student grammars, not sure if there are similar concepts for other languages.
0 x
jag nöjer mig med tystnad

Doitsujin
Green Belt
Posts: 402
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N)
x 801

Re: German Grammar Question

Postby Doitsujin » Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:40 pm

Iversen wrote:However I would venture the theory that the "also" in the first sentence isn't really a part of the sentence - with certain intonations (or punctuations) it has the same value as "now look here" in English, and then you can have a full sentence without inversion after it.
I totally agree with you on that. Many Grammar books refer to "also" as an Abtönungspartikel/Modalpartikel (=filler). You could easily remove it from the first sentence without changing the meaning.
0 x

User avatar
daegga
Blue Belt
Posts: 560
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2015 12:00 am
Location: Upper Austria
Languages: Bavarian (spoken), German
-- ≥ C1 passive --
English (IELTS 8.5)
Scandinavian (a: N>D>S)
-- along the way --
French, Italian
-- can read with dict --
Old Norse
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17055
x 951
Contact:

Re: German Grammar Question

Postby daegga » Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:58 pm

Also, are we doing someone's homework here?
https://german.stackexchange.com/questi ... a-sentence
same question basically from today
0 x
jag nöjer mig med tystnad


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot], nathancrow77, tastyonions and 2 guests