False passive Hi again! I am hoping that someone may be able to explain the premise behind ‘the false passive’ in German as I am finding it very difficult to understand. I would write the sentences; 1. The house is destroyed 2. The house was destroyed in German as follows; 1. Das Hause wird zerstört (present passive) 2. Das Haus wurde zerstört. (imperfect passive) However, the information that I have read on the passive says that these translations are incorrect, describing them as ‘false passives’ and that they should be correctly written as; 1. Das Haus ist zerstört 2. Das Hause war zerstört but unfortunately doesn’t give a proper explanation as to why this is the case. This seems to be totally contrary to what I have learned in forming the passive and am now totally confused. I have incidentally, from a different source, found an almost identical sentence; ‘The window was opened’ Translated as; ‘Das Fenster wurde aufgemacht’ which obviously uses the passive. Obviously I am missing something here, perhaps very easy and obvious, but which unfortunately I cannot understand and hope that someone may be kind enough to explain it to me! Thanks Laura

How do I say in German 'I succeeded' Hi again, and thanks to all those who helped with my previous question. Your assistance is very much appreciated. I would be grateful if someone could help with saying the following in German; 'I succeeded' (in arriving at work on time) Do I use Erfolg haben or gelugen? I'm not sure in which context each of the above definitions would be used and also how to write them correctly. For example, if it is correct to use the latter, would I then say; 'es ist mir gelugen' or 'ich bin gelungen' Hope someone can help. Thanks again Laura

How do I say in German ‘I had been told’? How do I say in German ‘I had been told’? Hope someone can help? Thanks Laura

'Hinaus' or 'heraus' I wonder if someone could possibly help with the following sentence I’ve read in a Geman textbook. ‘er jagt den Hund heraus’ (he chases the dog out) I have learned the rule that ‘her’ is always used when the direction/action is directed towards the speaker whereas ‘hin’ on the other hand, indicates direction/action away from the speaker. Surely, if ‘he chases the dog out’, this is movement away from the speaker and hence ‘hin’ instead of ‘her’ should be used; ‘er jagt den Hund hinaus’ Also, With regard to the words; rüber, raus etc, I am assuming that although these take the ‘r’ from ‘her’ which would indicate movement towards rather than away from, that ‘her’ is used here regardless of direction or perspective?? Hope someone can help.

How do I say the following in German How do I say in German; 'I studied for a Degree and a Masters Degree' Thanks

Does this sentence need to be in the accusative? I’d be very grateful if someone could help with the following sentence; ‘Am meisten hat mir deR Reichtag gefallen’. Does the word ‘mir’ count as the ‘subject’ element in order to require ‘der Reichtag’ being in the accusative and hence ‘Am meisten hat mir deN Reichtag gefallen’. Thanks Laura Eliot, I think you perhaps mean 'learn' it, rather than 'lean' it. So the self-professed master-of-all-languages is fallible afterall!

Is this sentence correct? I want to write the following in German, 'I hope that you (formal plural ‘you’ not singular ) have enjoyed your concert at the weekend' It seems initially not too difficult, however the ‘dass’ necessitating a subordinating clause and saying ‘have enjoyed’ in the perfect tense (which is what I’m trying to practise rather than the imperfect) has confused things a bit!! I would write it as follows; 'Ich hoffe, das Ihnen Ihr Konzert am Wochenende genossen haben' Hope very much that someone can help. Thanks Laura I do actually mean 'your' concert in the sense that my friend and her husband are musical performers and I am enquiring if they enjoyed performing 'their' concert at the weekend, rather than an abstract 'a' concert. With reference to 'have enjoyed', I think you are referring to the 'have' part of the 'have enjoyed'. No it's not strictly grammatically correct but I was simply trying to highlight that I wanted to write it in the Perfect German tense (ie using 'haben' rather than imperfect without the use of 'haben') so if you want to be strictly correct the English sentence should read; I hope that you enjoyed your concert at the weekend'

How do I say 'I went in Starbucks' ????? Thank you very much for the answers to my previous question. It is very much appreciated. I hope that someone may be able to help again. I want to say the following in German; 'I went in Starbucks' But I’m not sure which gender you attach to a tradename (McDonalds/Costa Coffee) I’m assuming maybe neuter and hence would be; Ich bin ins Starbucks gegangen ????? Thanks Laura

Question regarding dative case and indirect object/adjective If I say the following sentence; ‘With a small jacket’ Then the ‘mit’ triggers the dative and the indirect object ‘ein’ will take an ‘er’ ending and the adjective kleine an ‘n’ ending; ‘Mit eineR kleineN Jacke’ However, if I were to say; With small jacket (with no indirect object); I assumed that it would be as follows; Mit kleinen Jacke and that the ‘kleine’ would still take an ‘n’ ending as an adjective following mit. However, I’ve tried the sentence on the various translation websites (which I know are far from fallible), and it’s coming up as follows; Mit kleineR Jacke without an indirect object it’s thus treating ‘klein’ as the indirect object (rather than an adjective) and giving it the ‘er’ ending Is this correct? This has somewhat confused me to say the least and I can find no plausible explanation. Hopefully someone can help and maybe explain this to me?? Thanks Laura