{"id":2717,"date":"2014-11-05T08:21:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T13:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2020-10-02T13:10:29","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T17:10:29","slug":"speak-german-yoda-would","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2014\/11\/05\/speak-german-yoda-would\/","title":{"rendered":"Speak German, Yoda Would"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Itchy<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the most challenging aspects of speaking German in day-to-day life is this whole verb-at-the-end-of-the-sentence business. I\u2019ve been living in Berlin and speaking German for over two years now, and it still trips me up.<\/p>\n

The fact is, despite seeming otherwise at first glance, German verbs don\u2019t always<\/em> go at the end. They probably do only half the time. I won\u2019t bore you with the ins and outs of the grammar (you can learn that somewhere else<\/a>), suffice it to say that since it doesn\u2019t happen at the end of every <\/em>sentence, you have to be paying close attention while you\u2019re speaking to see if you\u2019ve set off one of the triggers.<\/p>\n

If you did use one of the key send-the-verb-to-the-end words and didn\u2019t notice, the sentence will be all screwed up before you even finish. If you did notice, or knew that you were going to do it, you have to mentally hang on for dear life to the verb you intend to use, carry it over everything else you\u2019re going to say, and set it down at the end once you\u2019ve finished. It can tangle your brain in a knot, believe me. It\u2019s not like English or the romance languages, where you can sort of build the sentence as you go along, in parts. With German, you\u2019ve got to have the whole thing in mind before you even start talking.<\/p>\n

Let me try to give you an example of this, for those of you that don\u2019t speak (or aren\u2019t learning) German, and can\u2019t quite imagine what this is like.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say we\u2019re at the lake, having a bratwurst with mustard. A fellow comes up and asks where we got such a scrumptious sausage. We want to say, \u201cI bought it on the other side of the lake, across from the bicycles and next to the bus stop.\u201d You\u2019ll really be saying, \u201cI have<\/em> bought it\u2026\u201d, and since the present perfect (\u201cto have\u201d + verb) is a send-to-the-end trigger, that means we\u2019ll have to wait to use the word \u201cbought\u201d until the very end. Hang on to it, brain! So we start the sentence: \u201cI have it on the other side of the lake across from the bicycles and next to the bus stop (all this time keeping in mind that although you\u2019ve given the man all the information he asked for, it\u2019s still not a complete sentence until the appearance of the verb) . . . bought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that the man who came up to us doesn\u2019t know for sure what we\u2019re going to say until the very end, so he has to wait. Think about it \u2013 any<\/em> verb could go at the end! How does he know we don\u2019t intend to say that we have this bratwurst at the other side of the lake found<\/em>? Or built<\/em>? Or willed into existence<\/em>? He just has to wait until we finish speaking to find out. For this reason, unless what they\u2019re saying is totally obvious, Germans rarely interrupt each other. They can\u2019t be sure what the other is even talking about until they\u2019ve completed the sentence.<\/p>\n

Sometimes this isn\u2019t so bad. Lots of times I find I don\u2019t know exactly how to conjugate the verb, especially if it\u2019s some funky tense, so I just send it to the end, essentially procrastinating until I finish the rest of the sentence, hoping that by then I\u2019ll have remembered how on earth it\u2019s conjugated.<\/p>\n

More often than not, however, I overcompensate and send the verb to the end when it isn\u2019t needed. I recall sending an email to my German uncle, who replied, \u201cyour German is getting much better \u2013 even if sometimes you still sound like Yoda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sound like Yoda, I do? Doesn\u2019t he to the end his verbs always send? Easy to learn, then, would German for Yoda be!<\/p>\n

Are there any other languages out there with mind-bending word orders?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

One of the most challenging aspects of speaking German in day-to-day life is this whole verb-at-the-end-of-the-sentence business. I\u2019ve been living in Berlin and speaking German for over two years now, and it still trips me up. The fact is, despite seeming otherwise at first glance, German verbs don\u2019t always go at the end. They probably…<\/p>\n

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