A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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Offline Textbook | A Foundation Course in Reading German https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/print-entire-textbook/ Page 115 of 151 12/8/2017 You can see that we translate the forms of haben and sein in the subjunctive past tense according to how the reported statement is introduced. Generally speaking, if the context is in the future tense or present tense (man sagt) then we translate the reported statement in simple past or present perfect; if the context is already in past tense (es wurde berichtet) then the reported statement is best translated in the past perfect tense. Future Tense Just as in the indicative mood, we can recognize future tense by the use of werden with an infinitive. The conjugated verb, werden, appears in its subjunctive I form: PERSON SINGULAR PLURAL 1ST ich werde wir werden 2ND du werdest ihr werdet 3RD er/sie/es werde sie/Sie werden Examples: Man sagt, daß sie nach Deutschland reisen werde. They say that she will travel to Germany. Es wurde berichtet, daß sie nach Deutschland reisen werde. It was reported that she would travel to Germany. Note: The subjunctive forms of werden can optionally be translated as “would.” Unit: 14: Subjunctive I 4. Challenges of Translation In each of the sentences we have used to demonstrate the use of Subjunctive I, the conjunction daß (or dass in the new spelling) has been included. It is not necessary to include it when we are reporting speech, thoughts, etc., in German, because the form of the verb in the reported matter is the crucial signal to the reader that the statement is a reported one (thus not necessarily factually true!). The ability to specify this mood in German can be difficult to translate into English, since English has no such accuracy of verb moods. Here are two different, but successful translations of a subjunctive I verb:
Offline Textbook | A Foundation Course in Reading German https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/print-entire-textbook/ Page 116 of 151 12/8/2017 Die Zeitschrift berichtete, daß Gase aus der Höhle giftig seien. The journal reported that gases from the cave are poisonous. Die Zeitschrift berichtete über die Expedition. Die Gase aus der Höhle seien giftig. The journal reported on the expedition. According to the report, the gases from the cave are poisonous. In the first example, the subjunctive I meaning is successfully conveyed by the clarity in the English sentence that the “are” claim is only according to the journal. Whereas in the second example, which is broken into separate sentences, the English verb "are" is not sufficient to clarify that, so you need to add an English expression to convey the meaning of German subjunctive I. Study this example: Der Kanzler gab gestern eine Pressekonferenz. Er werde morgen nach China fliegen, da ein Abkommen jetzt vorbereitet sei. Im übrigen komme der chinesische Premier nächstes Jahr nach Deutschland. The Chancellor gave a press conference yesterday. He stated that he will fly to China tomorrow, because a treaty is now prepared. The Chancellor also claimed that the Chinese Premier will visit Germany next year. As you can see, you may find various ways to translate the subjunctive I mood, but there is no simple, direct way to translate it. You should study how Englishlanguage reports like this are phrased in news sources or scientific journals if you would like inspiration for other ways to express this. Word Order Besides using the subjunctive I mood in normal statement word order, as in the above example, German sentences sometimes omit a conjunction that joins two phrases. Since subordinating conjunctions affect word order (see Unit 6), omitting a conjunction can result in a “normal” word order where you may expect something else. For example, these two sentences have the exact same meaning: Man sagt, daß sie nach Deutschland reise. Man sagt, sie reise nach Deutschland. Summary In summary, you will not always see the conjunction daß before all that is reported, nor will you see repetition of the introductory phrase such as Man sagt or Es wurde
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A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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