English Translation
Why are you acting like you don’t know me?
Hello German speakers!
Is the last word “würden” really necessary in this example?
In English, we could have different variations, depending on registers (and tenses). For instance:
“Why are you acting as if you didn’t know me” (similar to the example)
“Why are you acting like you don’t know me” (less formal + It would not work if we were in the past).
→ I feel like removing “würden” would give us something similar, less formal and since “tun” is in the present tense, it seems OK to me.
Is this the right way to look at it, or is this just not applicable to German?
You definitely need würden.
Because of the fact that you do know each other, the fictional situation in which you do not know each other is fictional. And when talking about fictional situations, you do need (in this case) würden.
If you simply omit würden as is your question, then you will definitely still be understood, but you will give off the unadvantageous impression that you don’t speak the language well.
What you can do is to switch the word order to get rid of wenn:
Warum tun Sie so, als würden Sie mich nicht kennen?
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English Translation
Why are you acting like you don’t know me?
Hi @davidculley,
Very clear explanation, würden it is then!
Thank you!
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