[quote author=Lonecat link=board=translate;num=1153998959;start=0#0 date=07/27/06 at 07:15:59]I think I have got the hang of using two inifinitive verbs at the end of a sentence in mod. German, e.g. "Dann hä´´e ich das tun k?n." (Then I would have been able to do that. or ?Then I could have done that.)
This translation looks immaculate, but reads as if a strong en-form of the participal is used for verb konnen (sorry, no Umlaut!) when your testimony seems rather to insist upon the infinitive mood. Now it may very well be the literary convention in German, to omit the ge-affix in periphrastic or analytical tenses involving modal verbs as that above. Omniscient Anders means something like this in his post #2 following your topical thesis. European Germans, however, will also employ a syntactical arrangement that places the infinitive form at the end of a complete sentence, when a native writer or speaker wants to avoid that subtle embarrassment, which a "Cold War" Sie-form may evoke with a simple modal like mussen (again, no Umlaut) or polite imperative as in Machen Sie das schnell! "Do this promptly!" This grammatical alternative must then be some kind of elliptical construction, with the main verb of imploring or exhortation probably forgotten in a lexical history of frequent use: thus, diese Arbeit jetzt machen!" (sc. You) do this job now!" Even better than some blog forum, last of all, if it’s group focus you so avidly seek, then matriculate in a suitable university either online or on campus, pay tuition & fees to acquire practical experience for your own, livelong purpose!
