Question
6 Jul 2021
- Japanese
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English (UK)
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Simplified Chinese (China)
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German
Question about German
How do you say this in German? How can we say "He might have droven to cinema" or "He might have gone to cinema"?
I also want to know is it possible in German that one sentence has more than three auxiliary verbs like might, have, can, and so on.
How do you say this in German? How can we say "He might have droven to cinema" or "He might have gone to cinema"?
I also want to know is it possible in German that one sentence has more than three auxiliary verbs like might, have, can, and so on.
I also want to know is it possible in German that one sentence has more than three auxiliary verbs like might, have, can, and so on.
Answers
6 Jul 2021
Featured answer
- German
"He might have droven to cinema": Er könnte zum Kino gefahren sein/Vielleicht ist er zum Kino gefahren
"He might have gone to cinema": same, just with "gehen"
"I also want to know is it possible in German that one sentence has more than three auxiliary verbs like might, have, can, and so on.":
Yes, that's possible, but I think 3 verbs is already quite rare, and if a tense would require more verbs, people tend to use subordinate clauses or adverbs to circumvent such expressions. Also note that modal verbs (especially when used subjectively) are mostly mutually exclusive (not always, but in many cases), and so you would have to form a sentence with passive, a tense requiring an auxiliary verb, a modal verb etc., which many even many Germans would consider to be very weird (fo example):
Das Kind wird haben operiert werden müssen (Futur II Indikativ Passiv + Modalverb)
(here are some "weird" german tenses:
https://deutschegrammatik20.de/deutsche-grammat...
)
Highly-rated answerer
Read more comments
- German
"He might have droven to cinema": Er könnte zum Kino gefahren sein/Vielleicht ist er zum Kino gefahren
"He might have gone to cinema": same, just with "gehen"
"I also want to know is it possible in German that one sentence has more than three auxiliary verbs like might, have, can, and so on.":
Yes, that's possible, but I think 3 verbs is already quite rare, and if a tense would require more verbs, people tend to use subordinate clauses or adverbs to circumvent such expressions. Also note that modal verbs (especially when used subjectively) are mostly mutually exclusive (not always, but in many cases), and so you would have to form a sentence with passive, a tense requiring an auxiliary verb, a modal verb etc., which many even many Germans would consider to be very weird (fo example):
Das Kind wird haben operiert werden müssen (Futur II Indikativ Passiv + Modalverb)
(here are some "weird" german tenses:
https://deutschegrammatik20.de/deutsche-grammat...
)
Highly-rated answerer
- Japanese
@Halala I really appreacate your detailed answer! tbh I was quite confused with the word order in German wtih more than three verb components. It's very good of you to show me examples of those sort of sentence. Thank you very much!
- German
No problem. Especially in sentences with 3 or more verbs it's quite common for natives to mess things up as well, so don't worry overly much about it.
Many Germans would prefer Präteritum over Perfekt when they use modal verbs for example, in order to circumvent several infinitives:
Ich habe ihm nicht helfen können.
Ich konnte ihm nicht helfen.
You even sometimes hear "gekonnt" in such cases, although it's not correct:
(ich habe ihm nicht helfen gekonnt) (grammatically wrong)
Highly-rated answerer

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