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Chile flagMario
Habest, hättest. Could you, please, provide some examples of present and past subjunctive in German? If possible, provide translations into English or Spanish. Thanks.

Answers · 14

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Don't call it "present and past subjunctive", call it Konjunktiv I and Konjunktiv II. The actual use is not related to the tense. Konjunktiv I ("present") is for indirect speech, Konjunktiv II ("past") is for wishes and contrafactual/hypothetical observations/assumptions. Mein-Deutschbuch has examples and more info (but no translations): http://www.mein-deutschbuch.de/lernen.php?menu_id=36 http://www.mein-deutschbuch.de/lernen.php?menu_id=37 and following pages. There should be websites with more info in English if you google a bit, it's a standard well-covered topic.
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"Er sagte mir, du habest geschlafen." Das ist zwar richtig, aber sehr, sehr ungebräuchlich. Klingt für mich wie deutsch im Mittelalter.
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As Dirk said, Konjunktiv 1 is used for indirect speech. But there is an exception: That is, in quite a lot situations, Konjunktiv 1 is identical with Indikativ, and in these cases it is correct to use Konjunktiv 2. Examples: "Er sagte, er hat geschlafen." (This is Indikativ, therefore wrong.) "Er sagte, er habe geschlafen." (This is Konjunktiv 1 and correct.) "Er sagte, er hätte geschlafen." (This is Konjunktiv 2, therefore wrong.) "Er sagte, ich habe geschlafen." (This is Konjunktiv 1, but undistinguishable from Indikativ, therefore wrong.) "Er sagte, ich hätte geschlafen." (Konjunktiv 2, in this case correct.) But don't worry too much, most Germans do this wrong.

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