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My German teacher told me that the email I sent her contained a threat. What I wrote was "Allerdings komme ich morgen." She didn't tell me why, just asked me to research about this, but I can't find anything on the Internet. Can someone please explain why she felt threatened?

Here's the whole exchange:

First email: Liebe Frau X. Ich würde gern einen Termin mit Ihnen ausmachen.
Answer: Könntest du morgen um 13 Uhr kommen?
Second email: Allerdings, wir sehen uns morgen um 13 Uhr.

She then told me that allerdings was perceived as a threat. So it doesn't have anything to do with viruses or other sentences. It was allerdings, and I can't figure out why.

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  • 1
    I don't see a threat there. That said, the word allerdings, however, could be used in a threat to intensify your threat. – Em1 Jun 24 '14 at 14:37
  • A better word-choice would've been "Klar", "(Geht) In Ordnung", "Passt mir". But "allerdings" is quite OK, too, and there's no threat at all as "allerdings" is perceived as affirmation in this context. – Em1 Jun 25 '14 at 9:01
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Indeed, if someone asks you "Kommst du morgen?" and you answer by "Allerdings komme ich morgen", it can have at least a slight notion of threat, the implication being something like "yes indeed I will come and also there is some wrong you have done to me, which we are at least going to talk about, once I come."

I will provide an example. You break something in your parents' house, say, in the cellar. Then, scared, somebody will find out, you ask your mom: "Warst du schon im Keller?" She, correctly understanding what has happened, says: "Allerdings war ich schon im Keller."

If she stops here, it is already implied: "... und ich habe auch schon gesehen, dass du xyz kaputt gemacht hast. [Und ich bin sauer.]" The conversation would then logically continue with her expecting you to apologize or whatever your mom would do in such a situation.

In a spoken conversation the intonation would make clear, whether there is a threat in what is said, since - as has correctly been pointed out in the comments - "allerdings" in itself does not necessarily contain a threat. In written conversation, like in an e-mail, therefore, a threatening tone can be perceived by some, while by others it is missed.

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    I think it's wrong to talk about a "threat" here. Using "allerdings" can be an emphasis, but the notation is not necessarily negative. If the context had been something you are looking forward to do and you state "allerdings komme ich morgen", the meaning of "allerdings" would instead be some kind of joyful eagerness. – jarnbjo Jun 24 '14 at 16:57
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    Very interesting take on a possible context. This use of the word could be translated back to english as "You bet..." I think - "You bet I've already been to the cellar!" – Lukas Graf Jun 24 '14 at 22:37
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I think you could interpret Allerdings as a "threat" as much as the English you bet.

Will you be there tomorrow?
You bet!

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3

It depends on the context. If you wrote

Ich kann heute leider nicht kommen. Allerdings komme ich morgen.

then there is absolutely no threat. You say that you can't come today, however you'll come tomorrow. On the other hand, in

Ob ich morgen komme? Allerdings komme ich morgen.

it means "indeed I will come" and might indeed be considered a threat.

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Taken at face value, "allerdings" is not a threat. But in the right (wrong) context, it could be.

In English, it might be like appending a sentence with But... or However...

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"Allerdings komme ich morgen."

Jokingly you can respond with. "Is that a promise or a threat?"

What it is, is an announcement.

Look at it this way.

If you announce yourself to visit someone it is perceived as a threat to the host, since he or she has to clean up the house. Also you are threatening to take up their time.

In that sense yes your announcement of coming over tomorrow is a threat.

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1

"Allerdings" means "Indeed" and is an affirmation. ("Das ist Dir wohl wichtig." -- "Allerdings ist mit das wichtig!")

It depends on the context if you see it as a threat, but I usually would not.

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