FAQ: What is subjunctive II in German?

October 2022 · 4 minute read

Subjunctive II is the form of subjunctive used in wishes and conditional sentences to signal whether a situation is hypothetical or not. Its most common usage is in “if… then” statements.

What is Konjunktiv II used for?

The Konjunktiv II is a verb form that you will mostly find in indirect speech. You use it when using Konjunktiv I is ambiguous, meaning the verb would be the same as another form of the verb. It can also sometimes be used to express imaginary situations, dreams, suggestions, and recommendations.

What is the subjunctive German?

In German, whenever someone else’s statements are reported or their feelings or opinions are expressed, the subjunctive I mood is used, and that mood is signaled by distinctive forms of the conjugated verbs.

What is the difference between Konjunktiv 1 and Konjunktiv 2?

Konjunktiv I is used for the 2nd and 3rd person singular and 2nd person plural, the Konjunktiv II for the 1st person singular and the 1st and 3rd person plural to avoid confusion. We can also use the Konjunktiv II to express a wish or desire, to make conditional sentences or to make special, polite phrases.

How do you write subjunctive in German?

The Subjunctive I is almost always found in the third-person form: er habe (he has), sie sei (she is), er komme (he’s coming), or sie wisse (she knows). This -e ending (except for “to be”) rather than the normal -t ending in the German third person is your clue to indirect quotation.

How do you use Konjunktiv in German?

We use the Konjunktiv I primarily for indirect speech, for example:

  • Mein Bruder sagt, er komme später. (My brother says that he is coming later.)
  • Er sagt, er habe Deutsch gelernt. Sie meint, er lüge. (He says that he learned German. She thinks that he is lying.)

    • What is subjunctive II?

    Subjunctive II is the form of subjunctive used in wishes and conditional sentences to signal whether a situation is hypothetical or not. For example, when the German words wenn (if) and so or dann (then) precede the clauses in the sentence, you can often expect the verbs to appear in their subjunctive II forms.

    What is subjunctive mood example?

    The subjunctive mood is the verb form used to explore a hypothetical situation (e.g., “If I were you”) or to express a wish, a demand, or a suggestion (e.g., “I demand he be present”).

    What is the difference between subjunctive and conjunctive?

    is that subjunctive is (grammar|of a verb) inflected to indicate that an act or state of being is possible, contingent or hypothetical, and not a fact while conjunctive is (grammar|of a verb) subjunctive: inflected to indicate that an act or state of being is possible, contingent or hypothetical, and not a fact.

    How do you form the subjunctive 2 in German?

    Forming the Subjunctive II is much easier than you would think, and is done in two ways. One is the adaptation of the imperfect, and the other is with an auxiliary verb, werden (to become). The most commonly used verbs used without the auxiliary are haben, sein and the modal verbs.

    What is the difference between Indikativ and Konjunktiv?

    Indikativ is stating a fact. Konjunktiv is used to state what you wish or what should be. However, Konjunktiv I is today mostly used to give a report on what someone else said without giving judgemet about the truth of this statement.

    What is Präteritum in German grammar?

    The Präteritum is equivalent to the English Simple Past tense, so to speak. But usually, the Präteritum is not used in everyday language in German. It is rather used as a literary language. Germans commonly opt for the Perfekt in their speech in order to refer to the past – which will be discussed in my upcoming post.

    What are the different tenses in German?

    German has six tenses: present (Präsens), present perfect (Perfekt), simple past (Präteritum), past perfect (Plusquamperfekt), future (Futur I) and future perfect (Futur II).

    How do you form the indicative in German?

    1. Indicative: what is happening, what happened, what will happen. Gives the facts.

  • One word: Ich ging: I went, I was going [formal]
  • Haben/Sein + past participle: Ich bin gegangen: I went, I was going [inform.]
  • Hatte/War + past participle: Ich war gegangen: I had gone [before I did some other thing]

    • What is subjunctive voice?

    The Subjunctive Mood. The Subjunctive mood is used in dependent clauses using the passive voice following main clauses expressing necessity, demand, request, urging, or resolution. It always involves the use of “be” where some other form of the verb “to be” would be used in the passive voice construction.

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