I'm aware German doesn't have a gerund like the English language does, so I was just wondering how you could translate "being a" as in "being a vegetarian may cause health problems"?
Would "als" work here?
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Sign up to join this communityI'm aware German doesn't have a gerund like the English language does, so I was just wondering how you could translate "being a" as in "being a vegetarian may cause health problems"?
Would "als" work here?
As @Em1 correctly explained
Vegetarier zu sein könnte gesundheitliche Probleme verursachen/ bedingen.
oder flüssiger
Vegetarier zu sein könnte der Gesundheit abträglich sein / schaden.
In your example "being a vegetarian may cause health problems," you'd need to resort to a different expression, e.g. change the phrase "being a vegetarian" to "to live as a vegetarian" or "life as a vegetarian":
a) |Als Vegetarier zu leben| verursacht möglicherweise Gesundheitsprobleme.
b) |Das Leben als Vegetarier| ruft möglicherweise Gesundheitsprobleme hervor.
It's a different thing with e.g. "being a chef, he knew how to make lasagna," where you can indeed use "Als X":
|Als Koch| wusste er, wie man Lasagne zubereitet.
Additionally als can be used as you actually purposed.
For instance
Being an office employee, I don't dare to complain about that.
could be like so
Als Büroangestellter wage ich nicht mich darüber zu beschweren.