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Wie sagt man "every two years" auf Deutsch?

Zum Beispiel,

This event takes place every two years.

Ist es

(a) Diese Veranstaltung findet jede zwei Jahre statt.

(b) Diese Veranstaltung findet jedes zweite Jahr statt.

(c) Diese Veranstaltung findet jedes zweites Jahr statt.

?

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    "Diese Veranstaltung findet alle zwei Jahre statt". Deine Version b geht auch.
    – Emanuel
    Sep 5, 2013 at 14:08
  • Btw, I think that (b) corresponds more closely to the English “every other year”.
    – Carsten S
    Sep 5, 2013 at 19:24

2 Answers 2

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(b) Diese Veranstaltung findet jedes zweite Jahr statt.

if you want to clarify, you could say Diese Veranstaltung findet, beginnend mit 2013, jedes zweite Jahr statt.

(d) (as suggested by Emanuel) Diese Veranstaltung findet alle zwei Jahre statt.

(e) .. eine zweijährliche Veranstaltung (Example)would be another option, but this is rarely used (see ngram) and subject to similar confusion as biannual and biennial.

Brief summary of frequencies:

  • vierteljährlich (quarterly)
  • halbjährlich (every 6 months, semiannually)
  • jährlich, alljährlich (annually)
  • zweijährlich (every other year, every two years, biennially) (zweijährig would be "lasting two years"--biennial in botanic terms and referring to the age of a person or animal)
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  • Die Konstruktion "alle zwei Jahre" überrascht mich, weil man in Englisch "all two years" nicht sagen kann. Die Sprachen sind einfach anders!
    – Mika H.
    Sep 5, 2013 at 18:17
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    In this context, "alle" would be better represented by "every", so "every two years" would be a rather good match. Compare the Christmas charol "Alle Jahre wieder" which I have found quoted as "Every year again".
    – Tatjana Heuser
    Sep 5, 2013 at 18:28
  • Guter Vergleich, Tatjana. Danke!
    – Mika H.
    Sep 5, 2013 at 18:35
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    @MikaH. Funny enough, when you would use "all" in English you don't necessarily use "alle" in German. For instance, "All the time" is not translated into "all die Zeit" but "die ganze Zeit". And in those cases you would say "all die Zeit" in German, you again don't go with "all" in English (e.g. "Wo ist all die Zeit geblieben - Where did the time go") ;)
    – Em1
    Sep 5, 2013 at 20:01
  • @TomAu What's wrong with biannual? Semiannual seems to be AmE. Does biannual in AmE mean every two years (biennial)?
    – Em1
    Sep 13, 2013 at 7:27
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(b) is a good choice. The first one in my mind was "Diese Veranstaltung findet alle zwei Jahre statt".

(c) is grammatically wrong and (a) somehow sounds strange to me.

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