Search from various 영어 teachers...
Paulo Henrique
How to know the meaning of the word "Wenn" in German?
For instance is the following sentence:
Wenn es ein Problem gibt, rufen wir dich an.
"Wenn" can mean both "if" or "when". Translating this phrase I would assume that the meaning in this case is "if", but it also make sence with "when".
2014년 2월 12일 오전 2:13
답변 · 2
3
Let's first look at the reverse problem, because this is a frequent mistakes in the notebook entries I correct.
There are two translations for English "when", "wenn" and "als".
You use "wenn" for a condition. Whenever you can use "if" in English instead of "when", the translation should be "wenn".
You use "als" for a point in time, when an action happened once, and a second action follows. In this case, you can't replace "when" by "if".
German very strictly destinguishes between those two. English "when" can mean both. That's why you can translate German "wenn" both into "when" and "if".
In general, you should eventually try to think in the language you are learning, and understand the meaning directly, instead of trying to explain the meaning in a different language. German and English are quite similar, but often enough the meanings and expressions differ.
2014년 2월 12일
3
It is better to understand the meaning of a sentence than a word. Try to get feeling for the word rather than to translate it into English, because translating into English can be confusing.
If there is a condition you can translate "wenn" into "if", but if there is time information (temporal) you can translate it ito "when". Are you sure that English "when" is not used in conditional sentences?
Now the above sentence contains a condition. It can also be written as:
Falls es ein Problem gibt, rufen wir dich an.
An example of a temporal sentence with "wenn" is:
Wenn ich mit der Arbeit fertig bin, gehe ich ins Bett.
(As soon as I finish my work, I'll go to bed)
2014년 2월 12일
아직도 답을 찾지 못하셨나요?
질문을 남겨보세요. 원어민이 도움을 줄 수 있을 거예요!
Paulo Henrique
언어 구사 능력
영어, 프랑스어, 독일어, 포르투갈어
학습 언어
영어, 프랑스어
좋아할 수도 있는 읽을거리

How to Ask for a Raise or Promotion in English
9 좋아요 · 8 댓글

The Key to Learning a Language Faster
30 좋아요 · 8 댓글

Why "General English" is Failing Your Career (An Engineer’s Perspective)
30 좋아요 · 12 댓글
다른 읽을거리
