>>73914Even though all too many textbooks use the distinction between formal and casual speech as a marker of tense out of a false understanding of reduction to the essential (the concept of didaktische Reduktion in the fucked-up German didactics), this is actually not at all true.
In reality, the tense depends on the perfective aspect: If you want to make a statement about an accomplished fact which affects the present time in the broadest sense (and this includes any effect on the status quo of whatever you want to tell), you should use the perfect tense, e.g.:
- "Du bist zu dumm zu merken, dass Du ihm zugestimmt hast." --> You stated your agreement with him in the past, and it seems to still be your opinion. --> perfect tense.
- "Du hast beiläufig offenbart, dass Du über zwei Jahrzehnte lang Englisch gelernt hast." --> This past statement of yours is now openly known, and your long-lasting engagement with the English language, while being over, still has an effect on the present tense, even if it only consists in the fact that it amazes me you are still this bad. --> perfect tense in both cases.
In practice, you use the preterite tense only if your statement is not at all connected to the present time (This includes fiction!), e.g.:
- "Ich dachte, dass Deutsche gut in Mathe seien." --> Since I met you, I don't think that anymore. --> preterite tense.
It should also be noted that German normally uses the present tense, where English requires the perfect progressive form:
- "Du lernst seit über zwei Jahrzehnten Englisch." --> You're still learning, albeit according to your own abilities. --> present tense.
- "Ich lerne seit nicht einmal zwei Jahren Deutsch." --> I'm still learning. --> present tense.
And the last thing for today: Did you know that German does not have a future tense? As a standard, in the German language prospective facts are stated in the mere present tense. You only use "werden" + infinitive if you want to stress that you are making an assumption, be it about past, present, or future, e.g.:
- "Jetzt wirst du sagen: 'Du sprichst Deutsch schlechter als ein Kleinkind.'" --> This is an assumption, so "werden" + infinitive is correctly used.
- "Kilotrolls Schaukel wird als Kind zu dicht an der Wand gestanden haben." --> This is an assumption about the past. --> "werden" + infinitive in the perfect tense.
We call this the potential aspect. Mark the difference:
- "Morgen kommt Kilotroll bestimmt wieder." --> This is an established fact. --> mere present tense.
That's all for today. For the next lesson, please write an essay on your thoughts about Kilotroll using all of today's indicative tenses, viz. the present, perfect, and preterite, and make at least two assumptions about Kilotroll's past and present respectively, using "werden" + infinitive.