Breakdown of Ein Eigentümer sagte, wir mögen die Tagesordnung ändern.
ein
a, an (eine)
wir
we
sagen
to say
ändern
to change (modify, alter)
mögen
may / be asked to (in indirect requests)
der Eigentümer
the owner (legal)
die Tagesordnung
the agenda
Questions & Answers about Ein Eigentümer sagte, wir mögen die Tagesordnung ändern.
Why use mögen here instead of sollen?
In indirect speech, mögen is the standard Konjunktiv I (Subjunctive I) way to report a polite request or a wish. The owner likely originally said something like, "Ändern Sie bitte die Tagesordnung!" (Please change the agenda!). Using mögen captures that "please do this" nuance better than the much stronger sollen (should/are supposed to).
Is wir mögen in the indicative (regular present tense) or subjunctive mood here?
It is in Konjunktiv I, which is used for reporting indirect speech. For the pronoun wir, the Konjunktiv I form happens to look completely identical to the regular present tense (wir mögen). However, the reporting verb sagte acts as the trigger, making it clear to the listener that this is an indirect quote.
Why is there no dass (that) after sagte?
When reporting speech using Konjunktiv I, German allows you to drop the conjunction dass. When you leave out dass, the reported sentence uses standard main-clause word order. This means the conjugated verb (mögen) stays in the second position instead of being pushed to the very end of the sentence.
How could we express die Tagesordnung ändern using a Noun-Verb Support Construction (Funktionsverbgefüge) to fit this lesson's theme?
Instead of the simple verb ändern, you could use the active support construction eine Änderung an der Tagesordnung vornehmen (to make a change to the agenda). If you wanted to shift the perspective to the agenda itself being affected (a passive state), you could say die Tagesordnung erfährt eine Änderung (the agenda undergoes a change).
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