need help understanding this phrase "dass sie ihr Essen schließlich bezahlt hätten" This comes from a news article about a group of British tourists who were expelled from a KFC restaurant. The phra

Richard Shu

need help understanding this phrase "dass sie ihr Essen schließlich bezahlt hätten" This comes from a news article about a group of British tourists who were expelled from a KFC restaurant. The phrase can be found in this paragraph: Die drei Frauen und vier Männer, bei denen es sich um dunkelhäutige Briten handelt, bleiben ruhig, fragen aber mit einigem Nachdruck nach dem Grund für den Rauswurf. Der Hinweis darauf, dass sie ihr Essen schließlich bezahlt hätten, hilft nichts: Wenige Minuten später stehen die Gäste vor der Tür und diskutieren mit den Beamten. „Die kriegen alle ‘ne Anzeige!“, ruft ein Polizist What exactly is the Hinweis (suggestion) that doesn't help? "that their food is fully paid for"? "paid for by whom"? By the restaurant? I think there is an implication that the KFC restaurant manager offered to give the group the food they ordered for free in compensation for their expulsion from the restaurant. Have I understood this correctly? I can't make sense of the sentence otherwise. Why would payment for the food be relevant to the situation?

Sep 6, 2018 10:23 PM

Answers · 3

Hi, grammatically, this is reported speech. We usually use "Konjunktiv I" here, but if the Konjunktiv I form is the same as the indicative form, we switch to "Konjunktiv II". So Er sagte, er ist schlau. (wrong) Er sagte, er sei schlau. (Konjunktiv I; He said he was smart) Sie sagten, sie haben viel Geld (could be either indicative or Konjunktiv I, so strictly speaking, it is wrong or potentially confusing, hence we use the next option) Sie sagten, sie hätten viel Geld. (Konjunktiv II) (They said they had a lot of money) So in your example, the tourists said that they had paid for the food. So it seems they were told to leave before finishing their meal despite having paid for it.

September 7, 2018

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