Re: OT: German Imperatives

Hi!

David J. Peterson writes:
> German speakers: is there anything wrong with the following:
>
> Kommen Sie hier bitte.
>
> It was suggested to me that this was, in some way, uncolloquial.
>...
I'd say the above sentence is, well, basically wrong.  The normal way
to say what is probably intended is:

   Kommen Sie bitte her!   (note 'her', not 'hier', that's what
                           was basically wrong)

It is equally ok to say:

   Bitte kommen Sie her!

And, quite colloquially, you could put 'bitte' last:

   Kommen Sie her, bitte!

Further, you could use 'small particles' ('ja', 'doch', 'denn', 'mal',
... I don't know the correct term, but they are common in German (and
Dutch)) to make it more colloquial:

   Kommen Sie bitte mal her!
   Kommen Sie mal bitte her!
   Bitte kommen Sie mal her!
   ...

(mal ~ 'for once'?)

   Kommen Sie doch bitte mal her!
   ...

(doch ~ 'I think it would be a good idea if...'??)

Different story, but these 'small particles' are hard to translate --
sometimes you just don't translate them, and sometimes you use a
totally different structure in English.  Unfortunately, I've never
seen a paper on them.  It would be interesting.

> I said hogwash.  I can see how someone would object to it if you
> were using Sie instead of du inappropriately, but I've never
> encountered anything in my travels thus far that would suggest
> that there was anything wrong or stilted or strange about
> saying this for "Come here please".  Of course, it's native speakers
> that are the language, though, so I'd love to hear some opinions.
What was it you were puzzled about exactly?  You are right: using
'Sie' is definitely not uncolloquial.

It is not strange or stilted to say 'Kommen Sie bitte her'.  Only
'hier' is is not the right word.  The verb is 'herkommen'.

**Henrik

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