Hi,
I think I’ve read all the many threads about “ween vs. wann” situation and I haven’t found an answer to the following question.
According to Dreyer and Schmitt’s grammar, “Temporalenadverbien geben an, whenuntil when, since when, how long, how often something is or happens ”(I’ve stressed” when “and” how often “).
All the grammars I have (abou six or seven) teach that one uses “wann” in situations related to a specific time and gives invariably the following list of three possible uses: (i) in direct or indirect questions, (ii) in statement such as “I don’t know when the train is arriving” (that is to say, using “wissen” + temporal phrase) and (iii) when it means “whenever”.
In order to get an example of a possiible fourth case I have in mind, I’ve found the following use of “wann” in an interview on a german online magazine:
“Flex: There are these fans, but with In Extremo that is still within limits. The” stalker “, as we describe him in our song, is of course a bit exaggerated. But we know that these people exist. With me personally, there was also the case that a fan moved near me and commented on internet forums about when I went to where to eat, when I went to the cinema or even bought the same make of car as me. “
Source: In Extremo interview with Flex about the new star iron album
According to other source (I have only the annotation on my notebook and can’t remember whether it’s a grammar), “every interrogative word can also be used as a subordinating conjunction”.
I was wondering whether in “wann ich wo essen gewesen bin” and in “wann ich ins Kino gehe”, “wann” is classified as a temporal adverb and functions sintatically as a temporal subordinate conjunction that introduces a phrase that emphasizes a specific time at which the action or the fact took place. So that this other use of “wann” should be added to that three other ones taken from grammars given at the second paragraph of this post.
Is it correct?
If so, please check the following dialogue:
“A: – How often brush your teeth?
B: – I brush my teeth when I wake up, after lunch and when I go to bed. “
In my view, the situation is the same as the one of the example above taken from a magazine: B opted to answer the question not with an expected expression of frequency (e.g. drei mal pro Tag), but by indicating the specific times during the day in which they brush their teeth. Then the emphasis is not in the facts that make B brush their teeth, but in the ideia of the existence of specific times in which they do that.
Is it correct?
Or should one follow the prescriptive grammar rules and use “wenn ich wache auf” and “wenn ich ins Bett gehe”? In this case, the interviewed native german speaker made a mistake or there is a sublte difference between what he said and what is said in this last example?
Or, still, could boht forms be used acoording to emphasis in the action itself (“wenn”) or on the specific time in which the action regularly take place (“wann”)?
Thanks!
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