QUOTE (Eugene_ac @ Jun 23 2007, 2:52 pm) 
No, don't use it at all, very bad German.
I would say there is something like a gerund in german actually, but I don't know how it is called.
The above could be translated as follows: Während ich Zeitung lesend die Straße entlangging, lief ich gegen einen Laternenpfahl.
Another example: Singend gehe ich die Straße entlang.
A very common phrase is "sehenden Auges", which is used in sentences like "Sehenden Auges wurde nichts getan, um die Katastrophe abzuwenden".
I think a possible translation would be "Knowing what would happen nothing was done to avoid the catastrophe."
I would say there is something like a gerund in german actually, but I don't know how it is called.
The above could be translated as follows: Während ich Zeitung lesend die Straße entlangging, lief ich gegen einen Laternenpfahl.
Another example: Singend gehe ich die Straße entlang.
A very common phrase is "sehenden Auges", which is used in sentences like "Sehenden Auges wurde nichts getan, um die Katastrophe abzuwenden".
I think a possible translation would be "Knowing what would happen nothing was done to avoid the catastrophe."
Sehr altmodish seiend most people would not use that construction. Novalis, Schiller, Lessing - sure. But nowadays it really only survives in certain antiquated phrases.
