Is it really the best way to make a question on such a way? "Ich kann mich also darauf verlassen, dass Frau Blaunstein die Nachricht bekommt?" If I understand the meaning, it means: "Can I be sure,

janez

Is it really the best way to make a question on such a way? "Ich kann mich also darauf verlassen, dass Frau Blaunstein die Nachricht bekommt?" If I understand the meaning, it means: "Can I be sure, that Mrs. Blaunstein will get the message?" If this clause is ended with full stop instead of question mark, I wouldn't even think about any question and I would understand it: "I can be sure that Mrs. Blaunstein will get the message". I mean that in this case is no need to put the words in such order and get affirmative clause, (if you're at the same time ignoring question mark in the end). And this question really doesn't sound good (just my opinion). Wouldn't it be much better to write: KANN MICH ICH ... or KANN ICH MICH... - I don't know which word order is correct if any.

Jul 10, 2014 2:02 PM

Answers · 5

It's an intonation question. The word order is that of a statement, but the final question mark means you raise your voice at the end and turn it into a question. The meaning here is different from a pure question. In a pure question, the speaker is just asking for information. Phrased like this, the speaker wants to assume that what he is asking is the case, and just wants confirmation (or to get to admit the listener that it's not the case, and explain why it is so). For a pure question, the word order would be "Kann ich mich ..." (subject before dative object before accusative object).

July 10, 2014

It's really not much different from English, is it? You can't just ask "Can I be sure that ...?", but "So I can be sure that ...?" is also possible to get a confirmation.

July 12, 2014

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