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Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass ich mich auf Euch verlassen konnte, so wie ich mich früher auf meinen Bruder verlassen konnte.

In this sentence, the phrase "ich mich auf jmd. verlassen konnte" is repeated in the same way, which might be a little unusual in English and French, for instance. I wonder if German does not take issue with this kind of repetition?

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    This is done by purpose, to put emphasis on verlassen konnte. If you left it out, the emphasis would be on auf meinen Bruder.
    – Janka
    Jul 23, 2017 at 19:52
  • There is an entire branch of linguistics looking into the (cognitive, etc.) functions of repetitions in texts. But this is nothing specific for German. You could ask the same question for utterances in any language. Jul 23, 2017 at 22:38
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    The question makes no sense. English and French work exactly the same way. In English: "I felt that I could rely on you just like earlier I could rely on my brother." There is absolutely nothing odd about this. There are techniques to eliminate repetitions of this kind, but they are often inelegan. When the repeated phrase actually carries emphasis, as is the case here, using them would be a bad idea.
    – user2183
    Jul 24, 2017 at 8:45

1 Answer 1

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It's a perfectly valid sentence, and the repetitiveness may just be a matter of style. You could also say

Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass ich mich auf Euch verlassen konnte, so wie früher auf meinen Bruder

without changing the meaning.


In other cases, contracting a sentence like that can lead to ambiguities, like in the famous joke:

"Ich träume davon, Millionär zu werden, so wie mein Vater"

"Dein Vater ist Millionär?"

"Nein, aber er träumt davon"

The ambiguity could be resolved by saying

"Ich träume davon, Millionär zu werden, so wie mein Vater davon träumt"

But not in your case, there is no such ambiguity.


By the way: In English, it's similar. The grammar here may be a bit odd, and I think you wouldn't say it exactly like that, but it's just intended as a comparison:

I had the feeling that I could rely on you, like on my brother

vs.

I had the feeling that I could rely on you, like I could rely on my brother

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    To resolve the ambiguity, you could also say "Wie mein Vater träume ich davon, Millionär zu werden." IMHO it is a bit more elegant than repeating the verb.
    – Matthias
    Jul 23, 2017 at 18:50
  • @Matthias Sure, this also was only intended as an example that is structurally similar to the original one, but where leaving out the verb can lead to ambiguities.
    – Marco13
    Jul 23, 2017 at 19:51

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