Confused by Konjunktiv II

[hedgehog.chess]

I decided to post a few questions here after having a quite confusing lesson about Konjunktiv II today.

Question no.1
I had to write how my dream flat would look like. So I wrote it this way:

Mein Zimmer würde in zwei Teile geteilt.

As I vaguely remembered that Konjuktiv II Passiv ( present) is created with würden + Partizip II.
I was corrected by the teacher(not a native speaker) that it should look this way:

Mein Zimmer wäre in zwei Teile geteilt.

Even more confusing was his explanation that my version would be correct if the person who did it was known.(???)
So:
Mein Zimmer würde von jmdm in zwei Teile geteilt.(???)

Which version is correct? I’m just dully starring at the sentences with no clue…

Question no.2
I tried to begin the sentence with “Ich wüsste gerne, ob…” and was corrected once again that no one speaks this way and I should consult a grammar book before I say something like that. I thought it was a fairly typical expression. Who was right here?

Answers by native speakers would be very much appreciated.

The title of this will probably land in the "The Answers to Discussion Topics " thread but for I can't think of anything better

[tarvos]

The second is Konjunktiv. The first one is rather just the past tense of werden. Konjunktiv is a subjunctive form.

I would also never use that phrase. More common would be something like "Ich möchte gerne wissen, ob"

[Doitsujin]

Question no.1
I had to write how my dream flat would look like. So I wrote it this way:

Mein Zimmer würde in zwei Teile geteilt.

Your version is grammatically correct, but not very idiomatic. I'd probably say something like:

Ich hätte am liebsten ein zweiteiliges Zimmer.
Am liebsten wäre mir/hätte ich ein Zimmer mit einer Trennwand.
Mein ideales Zimmer wäre zweigeteilt.
Mein ideales Zimmer hätte eine Trennwand.

I tried to begin the sentence with “Ich wüsste gerne, ob…” and was corrected once again that no one speaks this way [...]

It's more formal than Tarvos's suggestion, but otherwise perfectly acceptable. (Google Books found more than 800 matches.)

[I_likes_languages]

Mein Zimmer würde in zwei Teile geteilt.
[...]
Mein Zimmer wäre in zwei Teile geteilt.
[...]
Mein Zimmer würde von jmdm in zwei Teile geteilt.(???)

Which version is correct?[...]

I'm not super good at explaining German grammar. I started typing and ended up with all kinds of knots in my head, so I'll keep it simple:

First of all, I'd highly suggest using "Bereiche" instead of "Teile":
Mein Zimmer wäre in zwei Bereiche geteilt.

The sentence with wäre is correct. The other sentence is missing something, so it's kind of in between two possible forms. It could be an Konjunktiv II, Aktiv, Futur if you put a person; but it could also be turned into a passive form:

Weird: Mein Zimmer würde in zwei Teile geteilt.
Better: Mein Zimmer würde [von mir] in zwei Teile geteilt [werden].

But I doubt many people would say it that way. It would be much more natural to say "Ich würde mein Zimmer in zwei Teile (Bereiche) aufteilen";

Question no.2
I tried to begin the sentence with “Ich wüsste gerne, ob…” and was corrected once again that no one speaks this way and I should consult a grammar book before I say something like that. I thought it was a fairly typical expression. Who was right here?

What the ...? A lot of people speak that way. I use that all the time, to ask for someone else's plans, opinion; when I'm to lazy to look something up, to start a discussion [there are tons of other uses now that I think about it].
It's close to "I wonder if..", but it can also mean "I would like to know". Because you're basically saying "I'd be pleased if I knew xxx"; it can sound more like you're wondering than asking. People who prefer a more direct way of speaking might not use it much and could get annoyed if you overuse this instead of just asking directly.

I like using this construction in discussions because it's a very open way of asking, the implicit assumption often being that neither I nor the person I'm speaking with knows the exact answer.

Examples:
Ich wüsste gerne, ob ihr morgen kommt.
Ich wüsste gerne, ob es dort voll sein wird.
Ich wüsste gerne, was er darüber denkt.

[Iversen]

I'm not a native speaker, but “Ich wüsste gerne, ob…” seems to me to be perfectly OK. But it is very polite and maybe somewhat oldfashioned.

And I could see myself using "Mein Zimmer würde in zwei Teile geteilt" if it was something that would happen if a certain condition was met - for instance that I was dumb enough to buy a very territorial hamster that claimed half of the room for itself. I can't see that it would make a difference to indicate the perpetrator of the room splitting operation, in this case the hamster. But it's the kind of sentence I would expect to see in an old book about philosophy, not in a discussion about interior design today.

"Mein Zimmer wäre in zwei Teile geteilt" would be hypothetical and indicate that the condition hadn't been met - though this also would be a somewhat stilted formulation. It also could express a wish ("Mein Wunschzimmer wäre ..."), and then it would be OK. It is in my opinion also perfectly OK to use the present subjunctive in indirect speech if you want to express doubt about the veracity of the statement: "Laut meinem Hamster, unser Zimmer wäre in zwei Teile geteilt (aber mein Hamster lügt)".

Hamster.jpg

[Doitsujin]

It is in my opinion also perfectly OK to use the present subjunctive in indirect speech if you want to express doubt about the veracity of the statement: "Laut meinem Hamster, unser Zimmer wäre in zwei Teile geteilt (aber mein Hamster lügt)".

Your example sentence sounds a bit funny, since laut is usually used with the indicative.

Laut meinem Hamster ist unser Zimmer wäre in zwei Teile geteilt (aber mein Hamster lügt).

Of course you might also phrase it as:

Wenn es nach meinem Hamster ginge, wäre unser Zimmer in zwei Teile geteilt.

BTW, German introductory adjectival and adverbial phrases (and clauses) are usually not separated by a comma. For more information, see this old German Zwiebelfisch post.

[Sahmilat]

I decided to post a few questions here after having a quite confusing lesson about Konjunktiv II today.

Question no.1
I had to write how my dream flat would look like. So I wrote it this way:

Mein Zimmer würde in zwei Teile geteilt.

As I vaguely remembered that Konjuktiv II Passiv ( present) is created with würden + Partizip II.
I was corrected by the teacher(not a native speaker) that it should look this way:

Mein Zimmer wäre in zwei Teile geteilt.

Even more confusing was his explanation that my version would be correct if the person who did it was known.(???)
So:
Mein Zimmer würde von jmdm in zwei Teile geteilt.(???)

The sentence you wrote is missing a form of sein. If you're saying that your room would be divided into two parts, you could say Mein Zimmer würde in zwei Teile geteilt sein but for the verb sein it is more natural to use wäre, instead of using würde + infinitiv like you do with other verbs. (This also applies to haben, which usually would be ich hätte gern...)

Question no.2
I tried to begin the sentence with “Ich wüsste gerne, ob…” and was corrected once again that no one speaks this way and I should consult a grammar book before I say something like that. I thought it was a fairly typical expression. Who was right here?

Answers by native speakers would be very much appreciated.

The title of this will probably land in the "The Answers to Discussion Topics " thread but for I can't think of anything better

This isn't that weird, but I have encountered in many books the claim that, other than haben and sein, you should usually use the würde + infinitiv construction. Not a native speaker, so I can't be sure myself of how well this holds up, but this is probably what your teacher was referring to.

[hedgehog.chess]

First of you thank you all for responding to my questions. Secondly from this responses I see that the sentence I used as an example has some problems on its own...
I found where I’ve seen the rule that Konjuktiv II Passiv ( present) is created with würden + Partizip II.
It’s from the book “Gramatyka w tłumaczeniach cz.4(B2)”. Here’s a screenshot of the rule and a translation.

regula.jpg

The Passive Voice can also appear in Konjunktiv II, which only has two tenses. The Passive voice takes then one of the following forms:
Present/Future: würde + Partizip II (sentence 35)
Past: wäre-+ Partizip II + worden (sentence 26)

Here are the mentioned sentences:

35.jpg

26.jpg

I assume that the author didn’t invent that rule. But I couldn’t find any further examples in this book. A leaf through the academic standard “Nowe repetytorium z gramatyki języka niemieckiego” didn’t provide them either. Maybe someone would be so kind and check with the help of more advanced grammar books?

Ok, I found this on Deutschegrammatik 2.0 but there's no mention that you have to mention the person who performs the activity for it to work. Maybe it's just obvous for a native?

Konjunktiv II Passiv
Gegenwart
Der Konjunktiv II Passiv für die Gegenwart wird mit dem Konjunktiv II von werden und dem Partizip II gebildet.

Konjunktiv II Passiv Gegenwart = Konjunktiv II von werden + Partizip II

Beispiel:
Aktiv: Der Arzt würde den Mann operieren
Passiv: Der Mann würde von dem Arzt operiert.

This isn't that weird, but I have encountered in many books the claim that, other than haben and sein, you should usually use the würde + infinitiv construction. Not a native speaker, so I can't be sure myself of how well this holds up, but this is probably what your teacher was referring to.

The weird part was that we also used “Es gäbe…” and that was ok. Oh well, maybe yesterday was just a bad day for learning German.

EDIT: added the Deutschegrammatik 2.0

[Kraut]

The original corrector was right: we must distinguish here between

a) the verb "SEIN + adjective "ZWEIGETEILT": ZWEIGETEILT SEIN: Das Zimmer ist zweigeteilt.
b) the full verb "ETWAS ZWEITEILEN": Das Zimmer wird zweigeteilt.

instead of the hypothetical staff, you can use present tense
1. Frage: WIE SIEHT DEIN TRAUMZIMMER AUS?

Mein Traumzimmer ist zweigeteilt, hat drei Fenster, eine Duschkabine und eine lila Tapete.

hypothetically:
2. WIE WÜRDE DEIN TRAUMZIMMER AUSSEHEN? WIE SÄHE DEIN TRAUMZIMMER AUS?
Mein Traumzimmer wäre zweigeteilt, hätte drei Fenster, eine Duschkabine und eine lila Tapete. Im ganzen Zimmer gäbe es LAN-Verkabelung.

now we introduce an agent, the father who is a carpenter, we need him if we use the full verb

Mein Vater ist Zimmermann. Mein Zimmer würde (von ihm) zweigeteilt (werden), hätte drei Fenster, eine Duschkabine und eine lila Tapete.

[hedgehog.chess]

Ok, I think I finally understand.