Monday, 19 November 2007

pne: A picture of a plush toy, halfway between a duck and a platypus, with a green body and a yellow bill and feet. (Default)

Amy has figured out about fronting things for emphasis or topicalisation (e.g. "Das darf ich nicht machen" as opposed to "Ich darf das nicht machen"), which is fairly common in German.

Apparently, she's still overgeneralising: just now she said "Drei bin ich Jahre alt" ("Three am I years old"), which is not valid syntax in my 'lect of German, but sounds cute!

(Valid alternatives, for me, are "Ich bin drei Jahre alt" ("I am three years old"), using stress, and "Drei Jahre bin ich alt" ("Three years am I old"), fronting the entire noun phrase, though that's not quite the same since it emphasises the noun phrase rather than just the numeral.)

Profile

pne: A picture of a plush toy, halfway between a duck and a platypus, with a green body and a yellow bill and feet. (Default)
Philip Newton

June 2015

S M T W T F S
 12 3456
78910111213
14151617181920
2122232425 2627
282930    

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Sunday, 4 January 2026 05:10
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios