From my German perspective I often think the same about time forms in other languages. For conversations you can for the most part get by knowing the present tense and the “Perfekt” past tense. The other forms are important to know down the line but in day to day German those are the one’s you’ll hear the most. And then there’s English. Simple Present, Present Progressive, Simple Past, Past Progressive, Present Perfect, Present Perfect Progressive, Past Perfect, Past Perfect Progressive, Will-Future, Going to-Future, Future Progressive, Future Perfect, Future Perfect Progressive. And apart from maybe 3 or 4 they’re all in daily use.
Most “tenses” in English are not about tense, but about aspects like perfective, progressive, intentive or stative.
In German we use modal particles and auxillary words to express aspects and modality. The “classic” tenses we learn at school are an artificial grammar modelled after latin, not the grammar we use in everyday life. The grammar of actual spoken German is far richer than the school grammar.
Especially modality is a nemesis for German learners, as most languages to not implement modality. Modal particles are these tiny words like aber, auch, bloß, denn, dann, noch, doch, eben, eigentlich, etwa, halt, ja, mal, nur, schon, vielleicht, wohl, and more, that are strewn around almost every sentence
Just try to translate ich mach’ das aber|auch|doch|eben|halt|ja|mal|nur noch|schon|dann wohl into English or explain the difference in meaning.
The “classic” tenses we learn at school are an artificial grammar modelled after latin, not the grammar we use in everyday life. The grammar of actual spoken German is far richer than the school grammar.
This is definitely something that has left me confused. My past comments have been replied to with the explanation that written German is so precise but verbal German, because of the lack of precise tenses, often leaves me having to make assumptions. I chalk it up to my elementary understanding of German, but you explaining the difference a bit helped me pin point what I mean.
German isn’t overly precise to be honest. It’s kind of a “primal” language. We use a tiny active vocabulary and juggle it around to mean completely different things (that’s probably a thing a beginner will struggle with, every word in a sentence could potentially be a context clue that changes the entire meaning). English for example has way more unique words. Often texts become noticeably shorter if translated from German to English. I think that rules out precision 😅
From my German perspective I often think the same about time forms in other languages. For conversations you can for the most part get by knowing the present tense and the “Perfekt” past tense. The other forms are important to know down the line but in day to day German those are the one’s you’ll hear the most. And then there’s English. Simple Present, Present Progressive, Simple Past, Past Progressive, Present Perfect, Present Perfect Progressive, Past Perfect, Past Perfect Progressive, Will-Future, Going to-Future, Future Progressive, Future Perfect, Future Perfect Progressive. And apart from maybe 3 or 4 they’re all in daily use.
Most “tenses” in English are not about tense, but about aspects like perfective, progressive, intentive or stative.
In German we use modal particles and auxillary words to express aspects and modality. The “classic” tenses we learn at school are an artificial grammar modelled after latin, not the grammar we use in everyday life. The grammar of actual spoken German is far richer than the school grammar.
Especially modality is a nemesis for German learners, as most languages to not implement modality. Modal particles are these tiny words like aber, auch, bloß, denn, dann, noch, doch, eben, eigentlich, etwa, halt, ja, mal, nur, schon, vielleicht, wohl, and more, that are strewn around almost every sentence
Just try to translate ich mach’ das aber|auch|doch|eben|halt|ja|mal|nur noch|schon|dann wohl into English or explain the difference in meaning.
That’s a very good point
This is definitely something that has left me confused. My past comments have been replied to with the explanation that written German is so precise but verbal German, because of the lack of precise tenses, often leaves me having to make assumptions. I chalk it up to my elementary understanding of German, but you explaining the difference a bit helped me pin point what I mean.
German isn’t overly precise to be honest. It’s kind of a “primal” language. We use a tiny active vocabulary and juggle it around to mean completely different things (that’s probably a thing a beginner will struggle with, every word in a sentence could potentially be a context clue that changes the entire meaning). English for example has way more unique words. Often texts become noticeably shorter if translated from German to English. I think that rules out precision 😅
That’s how I felt/feel, but couldn’t/can’t refute a native speaker because I just don’t know enough. Thanks for the comments!
Sure. Feel free to ask if there’s anything else. I could chat about languages all day 😄