Why not Weise, dass?

Question

In conversation with 2 native German speakers I said:

Die Infektionsweise bezieht sich auf die Weise, dass die Infektion von einer Person zur anderen übertragen wird.

They corrected me like this:

Die Infektionsweise bezieht sich auf die Weise, wie die Infektion von einer Person zur anderen übertragen wird.

Can someone explain the correction, please?

I expected my German to correspond with the English sentence:

The mode of infection refers to the way that the infection is transmitted from one person to another.

This would not be English:

The mode of infection refers to the way how the infection is transmitted from one person to another.

Shouldn't it be "... the way in which the infection ..." or "... the way the infection ..." in proper English? Or am I subconsciously germanizing English here? The German equivalent would be: "... bezieht sich auf die Weise, auf die die Infektion ..." Which feels cleaner to me than "...die Weise, wie ...". — HalvarF, Jul 7, 2021 at 21:54
The "how" version might not "proper" English, but it's not unheard of, at least in the particular area of rural North America I'm from. I guess part of the question is why the "how" isn't allowed, seeing as that's what it means. In other words "that" instead of "how" seems more like an irregularity in English than something you should expect to be followed in German. — RDBury, Jul 8, 2021 at 15:50

Hubert Schölnast · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-07 21:01:11Z

5

dass = that

Die Infektionsweise bezieht sich auf die Weise, dass die Infektion von einer Person zur anderen übertragen wird.
_{The mode of infection refers to the mode that the infection is transmitted from one person to another.}
wie = how

Die Infektionsweise bezieht sich auf die Weise, wie die Infektion von einer Person zur anderen übertragen wird.
_{The mode of infection refers to the mode how the infection is transmitted from one person to another.}

The mode of an action doesn't tell you, that something happened. The mode tells you how (in which way) it happened.

answered Jul 7, 2021 at 21:01

Hubert Schölnast

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4

I'm afraid the example is not entirely lucid because the that-£variant might as well pass in an informal context, but die Weise wie is a set collocation. Not a native English speaker, just saying.
– vectory
Jul 7, 2021 at 21:23
1

I'm also not a native English speaker. Please, if you can give a better answer: do it!
– Hubert Schölnast
Jul 8, 2021 at 7:23
2

I think the main point here is that while "that" and dass aren't interchangeable, even in the limited case where they're used to start a relative clause. German seems to prefer using wie whenever you're talking about "how" something is done, even, as in this case, when "that" would be preferred in English.
– RDBury
Jul 8, 2021 at 16:00
A reference that elaborates on this point would be most helpful.
– user44591
Jul 8, 2021 at 20:10
What kind of reference are you thinking of? This is how native speakers like me use German language.
– Hubert Schölnast
Jul 9, 2021 at 6:52

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