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.
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