Expert: Kurt Bamert - 3/20/2007

Question
I am doing a piece of research on English and German syntax, and would like to check translations of the following sentences into German.

(1) Mary thought John saw Bill.

(2) Who did Mary think John saw?

(3) Who did Mary think saw John?

In English, (1) and (2) can have 'that' in the sentence, (3) cannot. In German, you can similarly omit 'dass' and retain Subject-Verb-Object order: can you do so for all three German translations?

Thanks

Tel  

Answer
1) Maria dachte, dass Hans Willhelm gesehen hätte.
2) Maria dachte, dass Hans wen gesehen hätte?
3) Maria dachte, dass Hans wen gesehen hätte?

The inversion "John saw" and "saw John" is not possible in German, so the question of the use of "that" "dass" in version 3) in German is pointless.