Community Web Version Now Available
Shawn
German: Reported Speech : Jake said that Mark had seen the book.
In American English, we say both "Jake said that Mark had seen the book." and "Jake said that Mark saw the book." I guess the second one is informal.
Anyhow... how should I say this correctly in German? Also, am I required to use the compound tense (haben + past participle) in the subordinate clause here or can we just use the simple past tense?
Jan 13, 2016 5:53 PM
4
0
Answers · 4
The sentences above sound good. You could also use "Jake sah" but it doesn't matter and I would prefer "Jake hat gesagt". In the supordinate clause there maybe would also be a construction with "sähe" but this doesn't sound very common.
January 14, 2016
The German "Perfekt" is equivalent to English past.
The German "Vergangenheit" is similar to English "used to".
We will stick to "Perfekt" in this case:
- Jake hat gesagt, dass Mark das Buch gesehen hat.
- Jake hat gesagt, dass Mark das Buch gesehen habe. (Konjunktiv I)
- Jake hat gesagt, Mark hat das Buch gesehen.
- Jake hat gesagt, Mark habe das Buch gesehen. (Konjunktiv I)
January 13, 2016
