2

The case remains the same with the one in the main sentence (Hauptsatz), depending on what it refers to does it not?

Ich helfe meiner Mutter lieber als meinem Bruder (als ich meinem Bruder helfe).

Ich helfe meiner Mutter lieber als mein Bruder (als mein Bruder meiner Mutter hilft.)

Also when there are prepositions

In einer Situation wie dieser (wie in dieser Situation)

In Situationen wie diesen (wie in diesen Situationen)

In Zeiten wie diesen (wie in diesen Zeiten)

are indeed correct, no?

But how about

In Situationen wie dieser (wie in dieser Situation)

In Zeiten wie dieser (wie in dieser Zeit)

Filme wie dieser (wie dieser Film) werden von immer mehr Menschen geliebt.

are they correct?

The amount of things can be different in the compared sentences, depending on what we refer to, right? It doesn't always have to be the same (Situationen->Situationen - Zeiten->Zeiten)?

Thank you!

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    The most outstanding part of your example is werden von immer mehr Menschen geliebt. Gemans don't normally use the word "lieben" in this context. We don't love things, we like them. Also it is kind of odd to use a passive construction here, but that really is minor and I assume you phrased it this way for the example's sake anyway.
    – hajef
    Jun 24, 2019 at 12:46
  • @hajef ah yes, I'm aware. I wouldn't normally use lieben that way, I wanted to tailor the sentence that way to fit the "main point" of my question. In any case, what do you think about it? Are there any mistakes/anything else I should watch out for? Thanks
    – user38477
    Jun 24, 2019 at 13:15
  • 1
    No. As I said, these are the most outstanding things and they are odd at most. The rest is perfectly fine. If you are looking for a more natural phrase with this structure that also begins with "Filme wie dieser", I'd suggest "Filme wie dieser sind sehr beliebt/ werden immer beliebter". A stative passive sentence is way more common in this context.
    – hajef
    Jun 24, 2019 at 13:35

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

You're right: "wie" (and "als") are transparent to syntactic case, but not to number.

(From a cognitive-morphological perspective this is not surprising. Number describes an inherent property of an entity, while syntactic case pertains to the relation of one entity to others in a proposition, and the nature of this relation is itself syntactic and not intrinsic.)

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy