How to translate "-ing" gerund verbs to German

I would like to say

" I began studyING german 2 years ago". What is the best way to say it? The ING gerund in English conveys that one continued the practice and I am wondering what the equivalent in German is.

While I am on the topic of imperfect tense what is the best way to also say

"The German people and their values HAVE always fascinated me"

Thanks

Dan

German does not have the equivalent of the progressive (ING) form.

Usually it's just translated with the present simple:

I'm reading a book. Ich lese ein Buch.
OR We're driving to Amsterdam next weekend. Wir fahren nächstes Wochenende nach Amsterdam.

If you're using the ING as a gerund (substantiviertes Verb):

I began studying 2 years ago. Ich habe vor 2 Jahren angefangen zu studieren.

I like reading. Ich lese gern.

There's another way to do it so that you're actually using the verb in the noun form, but it's 5:30 in the morning, I haven't had coffee yet and my brain hasn't turned on. I'm sure others can list better examples.

Edit: I guess here's an example where you have the verb as a noun in German:

Driving in winter isn't always easy. Das Autofahren im Winter ist nicht immer leicht.

Sorry, bad example I guess.

there are some slang/informal uses of German that translate as the ING verb form.

ie. Ich bin am fahren. or. Ich bin am lesen.

You might here this form more often in the Rheinland than in the south. I wouldn't recommend using it, especially in written German, but you will hear it.

For the continuous present or whatever it's called, I'd say: Ich lerne deutsch seit 2 Jahren.
Following OG's thoughts.. you could also say 'Ich bin seit 2 Jahren beim Lernen'. Not sure how to incorporate the 'deutsch' here though, as the word after beim should be capitalised, maybe 'Ich bin seit 2 Jahren beim Deutschlernen'?

http://german.about.com/sitesearch.htm?ter...3294&type=1

This site is should answer all of your questions. I highly recommend it for understanding and learning German.

It's also a good resource for ESL/EFL instructors.

It seems rather old fashioned to suggest a book these days, but when I was at university, Hammer Grammar was the definitive work, and I certainly found it very useful.

I still have Hammer's Grammar at home, as well as the workbook, and I don't find it an easy guide at all; there are much better books out there for beginners.

I agree...hated that thing at Uni. I now have this one which I find much more user-friendly.

I'd say: Ich habe seit 2 Jahre studiert

whether thats acceptable or not I have no idea


still got that crazy routine Wahnsinn

Ich habe vor 2 Jahren mit dem Deutsch Unterricht angefang?

Maybe the suggestions below might help


Ich habe vor zwei Jahren angefangen, Deutsch zu lernen
Seit zwei Jahren lerne ich Deutsch


Die Deutschen und ihre Werte (alternatively: Wertvorstellungen) haben mich schon immer fasziniert

If you want to express that you are doing something at this very moment, I would suggest to use an adverbial phrase, e.g. "Ich lese jetzt gerade ein Buch", "Ich bin gerade dabei, ein Buch zu lesen". I would not use forms like "Ich bin ein Buch am lesen" even in spoken language, as this is really bad German

Whereas 'ich bin beim Buchlesen' is fine.

Deutschlernen is fine, but I would use "am" instead of "beim". "Beim" suggests you're attending at some physical place, but "am" has the additional meaning that one merely indulges in thoughts.

Thanks everyone for your inputs!

How would german approach "ing" when describing something in the past such as..

He was caught lyING on his CV.

or
She was seen surfING the net at work.

German Grammar doesn't use the gerund. When using the gerund as a nouns just translate it as the German infinitive (you can also do this in English):

I like eating pizza. Ich mag Pizza essen. I like (to eat) pizza.

For everything else combine together and use the equivalent form of the ing:

English simple + progressive = German simple.

I speak English + I am speaking English = Ich spreche Englisch.

English perfect + perfect progressive = German perfect.

I have spoken English + I have been speaking English = Ich have Englisch gesprocken.

So to answer your question you have to realise what you have.

He was caught lying on his CV. and She was seen surfing the net at work.

Both of these sentences are in the passive. They are actually passive sentences in the simple past.

So you would have to use the German passive construction to write these. But, as for the gerund, you would use it as the noun example above.

If however, you had a sentence that was using a gerund as a verb in the past you would use the equivalent German form (combined as mentioned above):

He was lying. in german is just 'He lied on his CV.' Er lügt an deinem Lebenslauf.

I will be flying to Frankfurt tomorrow. = I fly to frankfurt tomorrow. Ich fliege nach Frankfurt morgen.

cool?

Thanks again Lexicon !

Chi-town

My German is not great, but even I can see quite a few mistakes in this thread. It's clear that some people here do know what they are talking about, but others don't. Unless you're a 100% fluent speaker, or a language teacher/expert you should probably not respond to threads like these cause it'll just confuse the inital poster even more.

I know my own german grammar's pretty crap in practice and my usual typos are surely present in anythign I type...but I think I my explanation was pretty square on

Lexicon, if you still can, it might be better if you could go back and edit your post to remove the typos and other such mistakes so as to avoid confusion for beginners.

I must have missed something because although it is clear that "(ENG) he was lying = (DE) he lied", for example, I still don't see anywhere how one would say in German what the original poster asked (and that I'd like to know as well), namely:

I'm with Hutcho on this one. I mean, check this one out from Lexicon:


Haha!! Dinglish and poor spelling. Love it!

I think I already admitted the typos

And you think that makes it all right?

By leaving errors and and typos in your posts you're doing a disservice to those asking for advice, so if you can't be bothered to check your replies maybe you should include a disclaimer when posting and not after the fact.

I honestly have forgotten the correct form for the german passive, and I left my grammar book at work. But, babelfish mostly agrees with me and freetranslation halfway does:

I think this is right:

Er wurde Lügen an der Arbeit verfangen.

But this is what babelfish gives:

Er war verfangenes Lügen an der Arbeit.

Either way, his original question was how to translate the gerund, and I answered that -- as the infinitive or in this case as the infinitive used as an activity noun (minus the to).

If I were perfect I wouldn't make mistakes but I'm not, so I do. I sometimes miss those mistakes when I re-read my posts. Like the easy have vs habe.

My question would be what makes you think you have the right or need to criticise other people for making such mistakes? You seem to be quite quick to do so...often. And you always choose to do it in the openess of the forums instead of by private message.

That's exactly the point I'm trying to make: you were not at all sure of your answer but your initial post made it sound as if you were the world's greatest authority on the subject.

Edit: To answer the above, and as I mentioned in my previous post, it's a disservice to the person asking the question and believing the answer to be accurate, so what would be the point of sending a PM?

my original post wasn't any different than anyone else's. Everyone gave their answers. I gave mine. The word expert, authority, or anything else proclaiming it to be absolute and without flaw were nowhere in it. I read the other responses, some of them are pretty flawed too, yet I didn't have the need to say anything about them.

Chi town's a grown human being, he (she?) can pick and choose which explanations he understands the best. I hope he understood mine and I hope it helped him out. But don't accuse me of trying to be an authority just because you choose to read it that way.

Ich habe vor zwei Jahren angefangen/begonnen, Deutsch zu lernen.

Die deutschen Leute (Das deutsche Volk) und ihre (seine) Werte haben mich schon immer interessiert.


Er wurde (dabei) erwischt, als/wie er in seinem Lebenslauf gelogen hat.
Sie wurde (dabei) gesehen, als/wie sie in der Arbeit im Internet gesurft ist.

You need to make a paraphrase, we love Nebensätze as you might know.

(I think "als" is better in Hochdeutsch, but in Bavaria in spoken German wie is fine. That is how I would initially say it, but I remembered there was something about Bavarians overusing "wie", so it might only be okay in spoken language.)


No no no. That is awful German! I am not even sure if someone would understand it if they didn't know the original sentence. "verfangen" = to be caught up. It is not what "caught" is in this context.
Also, do not use Babelfish if you want to get a grammatically correct sentence.

Edit: I am not good with punctuation in German, I tend to put too many commas, so they might not all be correct, but grammatically the sentences are correct.

I new you'd show up eventually! verfangen was a dictionary lookup, I was going to choose erwischen but chickened out.

I remember hating the Passiv in college.

thanks mariposa.

I really recommend following book, it's hilarious. It's written by a German journalist and he points out how the German language is slaughtered by German journalists who write columns in German newspapers. It's a must read. Der Dativ ist dem Genetiv sein Tod

Der Fisch hat sich im Netz verfangen.

The fish became entangled in the net.

That is what "verfangen" means.

Yeah, I have that on CD, it is really funny. And I must admit, sometimes I am guilty of slaughtering the German language as well.

Sebastian Sick was touring Germany and the tickets were sold out. Next time around, I am going to buy a ticket and see him live.

One of my clients recommended that. I'll have to try and remember it the next time I'm in a bookstore.

Fischers Fritz ißt frische Fische,
frische Fische ißt Fischers Fritz.

all this talk of fish and all...

I was looking up Sebastian Sick on Youtube and I found this video. It's hilarious.




Imbissdeutsch

This one's even better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32MEadQb2dc&NR=1

Wrong. It should read 'fasziniert'...if it was 'interessiert' the english version would read 'interesting'..

You are right, I probably read that wrong.

I don't know why you keep going on about Passiv. As far as I can see, nothing being discussed in this thread has anything to do with Passiv at least in the German sense.

it you want to complicate it even more . . .

Fischers Fritz frißt frische Fische,
frische Fische frißt Fischers Fritz.

or how about:

Frischer Fisch frißt Fischer's Fritz

"Er wurde erwischt" is passive voice, if I am not mistaken.

He was caught lyING on his CV.

or

She was seen surfING the net at work.

suggestion:

Bei der Prüfung seines Lebenslaufs ergaben sich (erhebliche) Unstimmigkeiten / wurden (erhebliche ) Unstimmigkeiten festgestellt ...

Sie wurde bei der (privaten) Nutzung des Internets während der Arbeitszeit / an ihrem Arbeitsplatz beobachtet ...

I´m new here and don´t know how to properly quote posts ... anyone kindly point me to the trick ?

You click on the quote button in the post that you want to quote so it appears red, then click Add Reply.

Oh and by the way, your translation is good German, but a shift in register, and usually when translating you should keep the same register. [That is, when something is written formal, keep it formal; when it is written informal, keep it informal. Register refers to the level of language used.]

Actually, it's Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische,
Frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritz.
To which I may add: Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid.

But yes: Beim for -ing is always a good bet if it's continuous form. However, the question was the gerund.
I am reading a newspaper - Ich bin beim Zeitunglesen.
Reading a newspaper walking down the street I ran into a lamppost - Während (or even Da) ich im Laufen Zeitung las, rannte ich gegen einen Laternenpfahl. - While reading the paper or Because I was reading the paper while I was walking blablabla
Translating the gerund is always demanding but can be solved elegantly. - Die Übersetzung des Gerund stellt immer eine Herausforderung dar, kann aber elegant gelöst werden.

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."

That's the Partizip I: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partizip#Deutsche_Sprache

Aahhh, thank you. I wanted to look it up in "Elementarwissen: Deutsche Grammatik" from grade 5, but did't find it any more. Too long ago.

Yeah I googled it... what can I say... my knowledge of German grammar is quite poor (the theory, of course I can use it just fine).