Huh?
Ah... she isn't there now. German grammar is a little weird. The word
"ist" cannot be translated directly into the normally equivalent word "is"
because of the context used. "geboren" is "born", and she "ist" born
because she isn't dead yet. After she dies, then the correct phrasing
would be "war geboren" (was born), but now, since she is still with us, the
correct phrasing would be "ist geboren", is born, which makes no sense in
English because the word "is", (if Bill Clinton will forgive me) defines
present tense and a woman with two children obviously cannot be in the
process of being born herself. This all has to do with tenses like "past
participle" which is no longer used in modern English, but are used in
German.
Now, bear in mind, that I am not a native speaker, and while I speak it
every day, I don't read or write it very often. I could easily be far of
the mark in terms of my grammar and/or my explanation. I can carry on a
real-time conversation with a native speaker, and often have, but I am by no
means a German scholar. My conversations are fraught with errors mostly
ignored by a polite German speaker.
The most grief is encountered in German is trying to remember that each noun
in German has a gender derived article attached to it, der, die, or das,
which are masculine, feminine, and neuter. They don't always follow
logically, however. Das Fraulein, is neuter, and a young woman is properly
referred to in German as "es", or "it". Following proper Gramatik will not
get you laid, in this case, however. It might get you laughed at, though.
On 2/9/07, William Pociengel <hseldon@my.wgu.edu> wrote:
>
> Dale Raby wrote:
> > ...und wir kann ein bischen Deutsch schreiben, auch. Mein Frau ist in
> > Deutschland geboren, so ich muss Deutsch sprechen jeden tag.
>
> Now if the only problem you have is writing everything down then you
> should be fine ;-) I think you and your wife will have a fun time in
> Germany. Is this a short trip or will she be there for some time?
>
> tchuss
>
> william
> --
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>
>
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/Received on Fri Feb 9 14:55:17 2007
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