Breakdown of Der Meteorologe sagte, dass die Hitzewelle ungewöhnlich sei.
sein
to be
sagen
to say
dass
that
der Meteorologe
the meteorologist
ungewöhnlich
unusual
die Hitzewelle
the heatwave
Questions & Answers about Der Meteorologe sagte, dass die Hitzewelle ungewöhnlich sei.
Why does this sentence use sei instead of ist?
The word sei is the Konjunktiv I (Subjunctive I) form of sein (to be). In German, Konjunktiv I is frequently used in news and formal writing to indicate indirect speech. By using sei instead of ist, the writer explicitly shows they are just reporting the meteorologist's claim, distancing themselves from stating it as an absolute fact.
This lesson is about the preposition zufolge. How would I express this exact same meaning using zufolge?
You could rewrite the sentence as: Dem Meteorologen zufolge ist die Hitzewelle ungewöhnlich. Notice that zufolge is placed after the noun it refers to and forces that noun into the dative case. Also, when you use zufolge to cite a source, you typically use the standard indicative verb (ist) rather than the Konjunktiv I (sei).
The reporting verb sagte is in the past tense, but sei is present tense. Why don't the tenses match?
In English, we usually shift tenses backwards in reported speech (he said that it was unusual). In German, the tense of a Konjunktiv I verb is based entirely on the tense of the original quote. The meteorologist originally said, Die Hitzewelle ist ungewöhnlich (present tense). Therefore, the reported speech uses the present-tense Konjunktiv I form (sei), regardless of the fact that sagte is in the past tense.
In the zufolge example above, why did the noun change to Meteorologen with an extra -n at the end?
The word Meteorologe belongs to a group of masculine nouns that follow n-declension (sometimes called weak nouns). These nouns add an -n or -en ending in all grammatical cases except the nominative singular. In our original sentence it is the nominative subject (der Meteorologe), but when used with the dative preposition zufolge, it must take the extra -n to become dem Meteorologen.
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