Sentence structure

[pne]

I heard from a Swiss a sentence along the lines of "Ich bin froh, hab' ich ein Auto" where I would have said (if I understood her correctly from context) "Ich bin froh, dass ich ein Auto habe". ("I'm glad I have a car.")

It made me think about similar constructions; I would say, for example, "Ich wäre froh, hätte ich ein Auto" alongside "Ich wäre froh, wenn ich ein Auto hätte" but not *"Wäre ich froh, hätte ich ein Auto" yet "Wäre ich froh, wenn ich ein Auto hätte". (Actually, the asterisked sentence is fine but would mean something else: not "I'd be happy if I had a car" but "If I were happy, I'd have a car".)

But I think that sort of thing only works in the conditional for me. Interesting to see different constructions in different regional varieties of German.

Comments

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

"Ich bin froh, hab' ich ein Auto"

To me, too, that would only mean "I'm glad if/when I have a car" but I'd probably have understood the intended meaning in context.

[pne.livejournal.com]

For me, *"Ich bin froh, hab' ich ein Auto" is simply ungrammatical. I think. (Though I understood her in the context.)

"Hab' ich ein Auto, bin ich froh" is fine, though, and has the meaning you mention.