one of the challenges when learning another language is that it

7/25/2019 One of the Challenges When Learning Another Language is That It

1/5

One of the challenges when learning another language is that its not

always possible to translate word for word. Sometimes, the other

language uses a different word, different grammar or even a specific

sentence structure that wouldnt make any sense in your nativelanguage.

This holds true when translating from English toGerman. In this

article, Id specifically like to draw your attention to the fact that

German doesnt have a progressive tense. So, what does that

mean? It means that you cannot express that something is

happening right now simply by using a specific verb tense, such asthe present progressive in English. For example, there is no way to

say I am reading or I am eating in German. You can only say I

read or I eat.

So, lets have a closer look and start with an example in present

tense: I am reading the newspaper. If you translate this word for

word (and thats what many German learners do) you get:Ich bin

lesen die Zeitung.

Now, that looks like an accurate translation. However, it is wrong.

What you should say is:

Ich lese die Zeitung.
https://www.italki.com/teachers/germanhttps://www.italki.com/teachers/german


2/5

This is literally I read the newspaper. But remember, there is no

difference between I am reading the newspaper and I read the

newspaper in German. Both are translated asIch lese die Zeitung.

Heres another example: It is raining. The translation that I hear a

lot is:Es ist regnen.

Again, this is an accurate word for word translation. However, its

unfortunately not how you should say it. In correct German, Its

raining translates to

Es regnet.

Alright, great. Weve looked at this phenomenon in the present

tense. Now, lets check out some examples in the past tense. This is

important because we also have the past progressive tense (also

known as the past continuous) in English, which similarly doesnt

exist in German.

Lets look another example: He was cooking in the kitchen. And

heres a possible translation:Er war kochen in der Kche.

Well, what do you think? Is this correct? Thats right, its not. He was

cooking in the kitchen translates to:


3/5

Er hat in der Kche gekocht.

Why? Because in German there is no progressive verb tense, suchas in was doing or were doing. When an action happens in the

past, you simply use the past tense. In spoken German, this is

usually called thePerfekttense, which is formed by

usinghabenorseinplus the past participle. This gives youEr hat

in der Kche gekocht.

Heres another example: They were watching TV, when he called. Aword for word translation would look like this:Sie waren fernsehen,

wenn er angerufen hat.

But of course this is wrong, and now you know that in this context,

you should just use the past tense in German. Therefore, the correct

translation looks like this:

Sie haben ferngesehen, als er angerufen hat.

In the above example, you should also note that there are actually

three ways to translate the word when in German. Generally,alsis

used instead ofwennwhen talking about an action in the past. This

is what is happening in the above example.


4/5

So, you might now be thinking: OK, I get it. There is no continuous

verb tense in German. But what do Germans do when they want to

strongly emphasize that somethings happening right now? Well, the

answer is that there is a work-around. We use the adverbgerade,which can be translated as at the moment or currently. This

adverb is usually placed after the verb. Here are some examples

followed by their English translations:

Kannst du mich spter anrufen? Ich esse gerade. Can you

call me later? Im eating (or as we literally say in German, I eat

at the moment).

Ich trinke gerade eine Tasse Kaffee. Im drinking a cup of

coffee.

Wir spielen gerade Basketball. Willst du mitspielen? Were

playing basketball. Do you want to play?

So, to summarize, it is not possible to indicate that an action is

continuous in German just by using grammatical structures.

Therefore, I am doing something would be translated as the

equivalent of I do something in German. Furthermore, I was doing

something would be translated as the equivalent of I didsomething. Having said that, there is in fact a way to express that

the action is taking place right now, and thats done by placing the

adverbgeradeafter the verb.


5/5

So, now youre familiar with one of the big differences between

German and English. You have also seen some specific examples

demonstrating that its not always possible to translate word for word,

and that its simply best to adopt the structure of the target language.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the

comments and Ill be more than happy to help.

one of the challenges when learning another language is that it

Documents