19. Conjunctive, conditional and reported speech


  19.1 Conjunctive, conditional and reported speech - an introduction


First of all we should clarify the question: what is a conjunctive and what's the difference to conditional. The conjunctive is a grammatical form that expresses things that potentially or theoretically can / might happen. It is the form of possibilities (in comparison to indicative which is the form of facts). The conjunctive is the form to express reported speech.

Whether or not the conditional is an own grammatical form is discussed between the experts. The conditional does not express a tense, rather a possibility. The form of the conditional is actually the conditional of werden = würde. Anyway it is used quite often in reported speech as well as in conditional clauses.





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