[Multilingual Monday] Same idea, different conjugation
I'm, admittedly, fascinated when certain constructions end up requiring different verb conjugations in order to state the same thing. Different languages have different verb systems and handle concepts of time and completion in a different way. English, for example, traditionally is thought to have three "tenses" (telling "past", "present", "future"), yet compund constructions reveal more information about when (or whether) the action started, whether it's still happening, whether or not it ended, etc. Though we might call the same verb in two different languages a "past tense verb," they can cover different concepts of the "past"; do you just mean that the action was started? Was it finished? Interrupted? Long ago? Recently? Moments ago? Did it start but is still going? This is further complicated by constructions which may require a verb that makes sense in one language but wouldn't in another.
Here are two random blurbs that require nonequivalent verb forms to be used in other languages:
ENGLISH: While Carl shopped, I read a book.
SPANISH: Mientras Carl iba de compras, leí un libro.
Here Spanish calls upon the foe of the American Spanish student, the imperfect, which indicates that, though the action started, there's no focus on Carl's termination of shopping; that is, it's incomplete. The use of a "preterite" verb here would be incorrect.
JAPANESE: 狩が買い物している間、 僕は本を読んだ。, Karu ga kaimono shite iru aida, boku wa hon wo yonda.
Here, the condition with "aida", or "period", is in the non-past -- "While Carl shops". There's no reason here to indicate that Carl stopped -- though obviously at some point he did, the verb acts as a modifier to "period" -- during that period, Carl is shopping.
ENGLISH: Until you understand me...
HEBREW: עד שתבין אותי, Ad shetavin oti
"Ad" is "until"; "tavin" is "you will understand", using Hebrew's future tense. The idea is that you don't understand the speaker yet, thus it can't be in either of the other two tense.
SPANISH: Hasta que me entiendas
The last verb uses the subjunctive, "entiendas", an irrealis form. That is to say, the here implies that you don't currently understand, and you may never, but there's a hypothetical scenario where you just might get it.
I'd love other examples!!
Here are two random blurbs that require nonequivalent verb forms to be used in other languages:
ENGLISH: While Carl shopped, I read a book.
SPANISH: Mientras Carl iba de compras, leí un libro.
Here Spanish calls upon the foe of the American Spanish student, the imperfect, which indicates that, though the action started, there's no focus on Carl's termination of shopping; that is, it's incomplete. The use of a "preterite" verb here would be incorrect.
JAPANESE: 狩が買い物している間、 僕は本を読んだ。, Karu ga kaimono shite iru aida, boku wa hon wo yonda.
Here, the condition with "aida", or "period", is in the non-past -- "While Carl shops". There's no reason here to indicate that Carl stopped -- though obviously at some point he did, the verb acts as a modifier to "period" -- during that period, Carl is shopping.
ENGLISH: Until you understand me...
HEBREW: עד שתבין אותי, Ad shetavin oti
"Ad" is "until"; "tavin" is "you will understand", using Hebrew's future tense. The idea is that you don't understand the speaker yet, thus it can't be in either of the other two tense.
SPANISH: Hasta que me entiendas
The last verb uses the subjunctive, "entiendas", an irrealis form. That is to say, the here implies that you don't currently understand, and you may never, but there's a hypothetical scenario where you just might get it.
I'd love other examples!!