Ich sagte, dass es besser sei, sie gehe allein.

Sentence Discussions German
#1
English Translation

I told her it’d be better if she goes alone.

Warum “gehe” und nicht “geht”. sie geht allein, nicht wahr?

#2

“sie gehe allein” is a Konjunktiv I, which is used to express that the thing you’re saying was originally said by someone else.

So the person speaking just reports on what was originally said.

So in this case it’s a bit weird, because the person speaking is also the one that originally said it. It I guess you can think of it this way: the speaker is reporting on what his/her old self has said.

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#3

Yes, it’s indirect speech which uses the Konjunktiv I.

Worth mentioning: Many people, including native German speakers, would wrongly say

​Ich sagte, dass es besser wäre, wenn sie allein gehen würde.

instead of the correct

​Ich sagte, dass es besser sei, sie gehe allein.

This is strictly speaking not correct but very common. It uses the Konjunktiv II in its “wenn … würde” form instead of the regular form.

The Konjunktiv II has two forms. In indirect speech, you usually

  1. first try Konjunktiv I
    • ​"Ich sagte, dass es besser sei, sie gehe allein."
  2. if Konjunktiv I is ambiguous, you try Konjunktiv II in its regular form
    • ​"Ich sagte, dass es besser wäre, sie ginge allein."
  3. if Konjunktiv II in its regular form is ambiguous, you use Konjunktiv II in its “wenn … würde” form
    • ​"Ich sagte, dass es besser wäre, wenn sie allein gehen würde."

In bold are the differences from step to step.

Many Germans unconsciously immediately go to step 3, ignoring steps 1 and 2. This colloquialism is so common that it’s widely accepted as correct, but it’s strictly speaking incorrect German. It’s in fact so widely spread that you’re possibly even regarded a “nerd” or “weirdo” if you use the correct form.

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