4

I'm afraid sometimes to compose complex questions because they could mean something that I didn't mean.

My problem now is that I would translate this question

Can you describe me the team I will work with?

into

Können Sie mir das Team beschreiben, ich werde mit arbeiten?

It sounds a bit weird to my beginner German ears and I don't know if in this case the verb is shifted to the end of the sentence since I don't have any subordinate conjunction. If so, will it translate into

Können Sie mir das Team beschreiben, ich mit arbeiten werde?

Or does it just go in one sentence like this:

Können Sie mir das Team ich werde mit arbeiten beschreiben?

Google translate suggested something that I cannot trust:

Können Sie mir den Teams werde ich mit der Arbeit beschreiben?

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  • 3
    Google translate is awful. By far the least correct version. You should stop using it for English to German. It'll confuse you. – Emanuel Aug 2 '15 at 23:11
  • Oftopic : Exist out there in the wild something better that a plain dictionary ? – Tiberiu C. Aug 2 '15 at 23:14
  • for what purpose? – Emanuel Aug 2 '15 at 23:16
  • For personal study and improvement purposes. – Tiberiu C. Aug 2 '15 at 23:22
  • I don't get it. What do you want the book/resource to provide exactly that goes beyond what a dictionary is offering? – Emanuel Aug 2 '15 at 23:23
9

First of, it doesn't matter whether it is a question or not. What you're trying to do is fit in a relative sentence. The thing about English is that it

  • tends to skip relative pronouns
  • moves the preposition to the end (prefix verbs anyone?)

German does neither of the two things! The structure German can do is this:

Can you describe to me the team with which I will work.

Now, the only tricky part is to choose the correct relative pronoun. That depends on gender, case and number. In this example it would be "dem"

Können Sie/Kannst du mir das Team beschreiben, mit dem ich arbeiten werde.

As for the Nebensatzkonnektor... think of relative pronouns as these things, too.

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  • 2
    @Gerhard I fixed the "mir/mich"-issue as it wasn't part of this question. – Em1 Aug 3 '15 at 7:24
  • Google translate does much better starting with your English version. – Carsten S Aug 3 '15 at 9:31
  • Is it wrong to use "das" instead of "mit dem"? "Koennen Sie mir das Team beschreiben, das ich arbeiten werde" – Solo Aug 7 '15 at 6:29
  • @Solo... yes, it's very very wrong. What makes you think it could be right? Also, where did the "mit" go? – Emanuel Aug 7 '15 at 7:22
  • 1
    @Solo... well, for all your language learning journey... just because something is a certain way in English does not mean it'll be the same just with different words in another language :). The whole "that" thing is a super common mistake. People say "das" as a relative pronoun all the time because that's what they'd say in English. It's really hard to get used to not doing it but I have a suggestion for you that you can do even without knowing any gender or case... ALWAYS USE "DIE"! It has a higher chance of being right, doesn't objectify persons and trains you that it's not "das" – Emanuel Aug 7 '15 at 7:41

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