One sentence is given as: "Wieviel würde das kosten?" (How much would that cost?), which I think I understand. However, the response to that question is "Das wären 46 Euro am Tag." which is a different tense. Can someone please explain this to me?
würde and wären
Richard--246
September 4, 2018
One sentence is given as: "Wieviel würde das kosten?" (How much would that cost?), which I think I understand. However, the response to that question is "Das wären 46 Euro am Tag." which is a different tense. Can someone please explain this to me?
sfpugh
September 5, 2018
Actually it seems to be quite complicated and I am not sure that I have fully understood it.
German expresses “would” with the Konjunktiv 2 Präteritum or imperfect subjunctive. The trouble is that for regular verbs this is the same as the Präteritum or imperfect tense so in order to avoid ambiguity German combines the Konjunktiv 2 of werden (to become) with the infinitive of the verb in question, hence in the first phrase we have "Wieviel würde das kosten?" - How much would that cost.
However the Konjunktiv 2 Präteritum of sein is different from the Präteritum of sein so it does not need to be combined with werden so we have:
"Das wären 46 Euro am Tag." - That would be 46 Euros a day. The plural form wären is used because it refers to 46 Euros.
You can Google Konjunctiv 2, here is one example of a link:
https://www.germanveryeasy.com/konjunktiv-ii
I also found Reverso’s conjugator useful for looking up the various verb forms.
http://conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-german.html
I hope I got it right, perhaps a tutor will comment.
Richard--246
September 5, 2018
Richard
sfpugh
September 5, 2018
Here is another explanation of the Konjuktiv 2
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~deutsch/Grammatik/Subjunctive/KonjunktivII.html
RobertR34
September 6, 2018
sfpugh
September 6, 2018
I am not sure that your replay answers the OP's original question. Both "Wieviel würde das kosten?" and "Das wären 46 Euro am Tag." are about uncertain futures.
How much would it cost (if I rented the car)
It would be 46 Euros a day ( if you rented the car)
RobertR34
September 6, 2018
sfpugh
September 7, 2018
Module 10.4 "at the garage" has more on asking how much something costs.
I think one of the weaknesses on the Rocket course is that it sometimes uses grammar that is quite difficult for a beginner to understand without explaining it.
I have often had to resort to other resources to puzzle out phrases. This is compounded by the fact the tutors are very slow to respond to questions if they respond at all.
Badger
October 7, 2018
Hope this helps.
Richard--246
October 8, 2018
Fred-C14
October 31, 2018
Byron-K21
November 1, 2018
Richard--246
November 2, 2018
RobertR34
November 3, 2018
Byron-K21
November 3, 2018
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