A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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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