Timeline for I am trying to say "I was listening to the Lord of the Rings audiobook ..."
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
16 events
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| Jun 20, 2019 at 18:45 | comment | added | Janka | Same as English tenses feel for German speakers. I occassionally write short stories in English and it drives me nuts. On each proofreading pass, I find Germanisms. I need at least ten passes in English to catch (almost) all the mistakes. At max two in German. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 18:11 | comment | added | professor_cha0s | thanks I feel that this is the core issue I often encounter when trying to formulate sentences in German. My mindset has never been geared to think of simple present tense as everything but the past. Trying to formulate sentences that way just feels so alien. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 18:01 | vote | accept | professor_cha0s | ||
| Jun 20, 2019 at 16:43 | history | edited | Janka | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 20, 2019 at 14:09 | comment | added | Volker Landgraf | Das wäre zwar immer noch nicht ideal, aber OK, zumal ich fürchte, dass jede bessere Variante umständlichere Formulierungen mit mehr Worten erfordern würden | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 13:21 | comment | added | Janka | Wie gesagt, was schlägst du stattdessen vor? "report timeframe"? | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 13:20 | comment | added | Volker Landgraf | Übrigens bezieht sich meine Kritik nur auf die in meinen Augen unglückliche Wortwahl an dieser einen Stelle, die Antwort insgesamt ist gut. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 13:18 | comment | added | Volker Landgraf | You can call it past when you describe the linguistic term as simple past tense (include the word tense into the cursive part) to distinguish between them. Both fantasy time and story are confusing when it is a report about real events that occurred in the past. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 13:09 | comment | added | Janka | Which term do you prefer instead of fantasy time? It cannot mention past. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 13:07 | comment | added | Janka | No. It's not the real past. It's the same events as in the real past, told from a storyteller perspective. The difference is crucial. Put both your examples into Präsens and Perfekt. See how the events feel "more real"? That's why authors sometimes decide against Präteritum in favour of Präsens. It feels more real. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 13:04 | comment | added | Volker Landgraf | But in my two examples it is the real past, the second one even with a concrete date you can find in history books (history != story), so your wording does not cover all possible cases. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 13:03 | comment | added | Janka | Because it's not the past. It's an arbitrary time frame your story plays in. Das Planet-Express-Raumschiff hob kurz ab und stürzte dann auf die Straße vor dem Hangar. Später stellte sich heraus, dass Bender die L-Einheit verbogen hatte. (old example) Präteritum has the same function for stories Präsens has for reality. Plusquamperfekt has the same function for stories Perfekt has for reality. | |
| Jun 20, 2019 at 10:52 | comment | added | Volker Landgraf | I find your wording fantasy time a story plays in at least confusing. Als ich aus der Bahn stieg, war der Boden nass, weil es kurz vorher geregnet hatte or am 4. August 1914 erklärte Großbritannien dem Deutschen Reich den Krieg, weil dieses zuvor die belgische Neutralität verletzt hatte - why would you call this fantasy time? | |
| Jun 19, 2019 at 20:51 | history | edited | Janka | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 19, 2019 at 20:45 | history | edited | Janka | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jun 19, 2019 at 20:39 | history | answered | Janka | CC BY-SA 4.0 |