Die Zauberflöte is rich in speculations but do not speculate about that. Instead, read part one of a short series on the subjunctive.
At first we enter a world of rituals and rules, of pyramids and a paradigm that never shifts—the world of Freemasonry, where hierarchy demands obedience for the sake of good. As a result, the language is filled with orders and encouragement, for which grammar gives us the imperative. But where a command is received there is doubt and fear, at least in Zauberflöte, and where there is fear there are speculations. For these, and for expressing a desire, grammar—and eventually librettist Emanuel Schikaneder—provides us with the subjunctive.
To express an action that we just imagine, that we wish, that is possible, we need to change the verb or add a helping verb to make sure that we are not in the realm of reality.
We can say, “Wenn ich an der Scala singe, bin ich glücklich.” This implies that you are happy (glücklich) every time you sing at the Scala. The verbs singe (infinitive: singen) and bin (infinitive: sein) are indicative and tell us about real actions. However, I assume that you do not sing at the Scala—yet!—and that you would like to engage in a thought experiment. Then, we have to create the subjunctive. We can do that a) by using the helping verb würden plus infinitive or b) by changing the spelling of the verb itself.
Wenn ich an der Scala singen würde, würde ich glücklich sein. This is the way we often speak.
The subjunctive functions also as an advice: An deiner Stelle würde ich bei der Scala vorsingen. In your position, I would audition at the Scala.
A dream: Wenn ich Millionärin sein würde, würde ich ein eigenes Opernhaus haben. If I was a millionaire, I would have my own opera house.
Writers often express the subjunctive by changing the verb itself. We turn it (e.g. singen), into the simple past (sangen) and than into the subjunctive with the help of the umlaut: sängen.
sein > waren> wären
haben > hatten > hätten
Wenn ich an der Scala sänge, wäre ich glücklich. An deiner Stelle sänge ich bei der Scala vor. Wenn ich Millionärin wäre, hätte ich ein eigenes Opernhaus.
As in Zauberflöte the Drei Damen discover the unconscious Tamino, each of them muses what to do with him and asks the others to go and inform the Königin der Nacht about their finding. Desires are made up of passion plus würden plus an infinitive—Ich würde mein Herz der Liebe weihen (here: to dedicate)—or a unique verb form without würden. For that, the Drei Damen turn müssen (it’s real) into müssten (now it’s an assumption): Es müsste dieser Jüngling sein.
Tamino starts daydreaming when he sees Pamina’s picture. He turns stehen into the simple past (standen) and adds two little dots to the letter “a”. What is left is ständen, i.e., only in his imagination. Wenn sie doch schon vor mir stände, though she does not.
Read soon part two:Dies Bildnis and Tamino’s dreams.
Zauberflöte’s Queen of the Night is not as evil as you think. Although she scares us with her desire for revenge in her most famous aria, in the other, the quieter aria she spoils us with the sweetest gift: German grammar. O zittre nicht contains all the material needed for studying the most important grammatical rules of the German language.
Read excerpts from my book Die Frist ist um—Navigate the Language of 10 German Operas.
O zittre nicht Königin der Nacht
Her pleading to Tamino to rescue her daughter hurtles through all the tenses—starting in the beginning with the imperative, the command not to tremble (Zittre nicht!). She continues in present tense praising Tamino, then she remembers her daughter’s ordeal in simple past, and, eventually, she turns to the future tense to affirm her faith in Tamino. The Königin brandishes everything the German language has to offer to express her passion and suffering, uses adjectives with and without articles, reasons with denn, and keeps it concise with pronouns (ihr, dich, mir). At first, she tells Tamino that he, the Jüngling, has what it takes to console the heart of a mother.
Zu plus Infinitive. When we begin a thought with ein Jüngling vermag (vermögen = to be able to do) am besten, we need to finish it with a verb preceded by zu: zu trösten (to comfort, to console).
unschuldig = innocent weise = wise fromm = pious vermögen irreg. = to be able to (ich vermag, du vermagst, er vermag)
Recitative
O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn! Du bist unschuldig, weise, fromm; ein Jüngling, so wie du, vermag am besten, dies tief betrübte Mutterherz zu trösten.
Connect with denn.The conjunction denn (because) introduces the reason for the preceding statement. The Königin is suffering. Why? She misses her daughter. She could use the word weil (because) but that would make her suffering the main statement and her missing her daughter the extra information. Since the statement about her missing Pamina is of equal importance, she chooses denn. Like und, oder, or aber, denn serves as a keystone between two sentences. No change of word order is necessary. Zum Leiden bin ich auserkoren. The keystone: denn. Meine Tochter fehlet mir. A little later, she remembers that Pamina’s pleading was in vain. Vergebens war ihr Flehen. The keystone: denn. Meine Hülfe war zu schwach.
auserkoren = chosen entfliehen = to escape
Aria
Zum Leiden bin ich auserkoren; denn meine Tochter fehlet mir, durch sie ging all mein Glück verloren— ein Bösewicht entfloh mit ihr.
Simple Past. When you encounter an irregular verb in simple past, try to guess the verb in present tense. Consider what you know from the plot, from the context. Something is lost (verloren), mein Glück ging verloren; durch sie, because of her. What could the simple past ging stand for? A verb starting with g-. Maybe gelten (to be valid)? Grinsen (to grin)? The -ing ending suggests a soft-sounding verb. Try gehen. In present tense: Durch sie geht mein Glück verloren. It makes losing her happiness immediate and more dynamic than the mere Ich verliere mein Glück.
A bit later, she remembers Ach helft! war alles, was sie sprach. Looking at the context, the only infinitive that comes to mind when we hear sprach is sprechen. Simple past of müssen: mussten.
Dative Pronoun. The Königin laments, Meine Tochter fehlet mir. (fehlen = to be missing, to lack)
Who misses whom?
A) The Königin misses her daughter. B) The daughter misses the Königin.
Ein Bösewicht entfloh mit ihr. (Bösewicht m = villain; entfliehen = to escape)
With whom does the Bösewicht escape?
A) With the Königin. B) With Pamina. C) With Tamino.
Noch sehe ich ihr Zittern mit bangem Erschüttern, ihr ängstliches Beben, ihr schüchternes Leben.
Adjectives. She praises Tamino highly, using adjective descriptors as the actual statement (predicate) of the sentence: Du bist unschuldig, weise, fromm. No change of ending is needed. The same will apply to der Sohn ist lieb, mein Sohn ist lieb, assuming she does not use the adjective as an attribute: Das ist der liebe Sohn. However, the Königin sees him as her son and replaces der with the possessive mein Sohn. This requires her to express the gender of Sohn (masculine) in the adjective’s ending. Take the -r of the article der and add it to the adjective: mein lieber Sohn.
Das Mutterherz ist betrübt. Es ist dies betrübte Mutterherz.
Das Beben ist ängstlich, das Leben ist schüchtern. Now, with the possessive article ihr (her) take the -s of das and add it to the adjective: ihr ängstliches Beben, ihr schüchternes Leben.
A similar case occurs when she speaks of bangemErschüttern (fearful shock). With the preposition mit comes the dative and therefore also a change in article; das turns into dem, mit dem Erschüttern. Add bang and attach -en and create mit dem bangen Erschüttern. The Königin removes the article dem because it is not needed, for there is only one Erschüttern. The letter -m from dem stays stubbornly behind, though, now attaching itself to the adjective: mit bangem Erschüttern.
Ich musste sie mir rauben sehen, ach helft! war alles, was sie sprach: Allein vergebens war ihr Flehen, denn meine Hülfe war zu schwach.
Another Dative Pronoun. The Königing says, Ich musste sie mir rauben sehen.
What did the Königin have to do?
A) rauben. (rauben = to rob) B) sehen.
What does mir stand for?
A) Pamina was stolen from her. B) Pamina stole from her.
Future Tense. The combination of werden plus infinitive makes the Königin’s statement ambiguous. She might simply foresee events, or she could be telling Tamino in no uncertain terms what she expects him to do. Only the last line points to her attitude. The word sei (subjunctive for sein) expresses a wish and a promise.
ich werde (here: ich werd) du wirst er, sie, es wird Retter m = rescuer Sieger m = victor
Du wirst sie zu befreien gehen, du wirst der Tochter Retter sein. Und werd ich dich als Sieger sehen, so sei sie dann auf ewig dein.
Die Frist ist um Navigate the Language of 10 German Operas
The pandemic stirred up our lives and—no surprise—our language too. It brought us a couple of new verbs and made three participles most famous. While the verbs leave our tongues to enter our day-to-day conversations, the participles appear as a single letter, the letter G, on the doors of restaurants, stores, trains, theaters and opera houses, unmovable like insignia of an omnipresent royalty.
The term 3G means:
geimpft genesen getestet
Some places, e.g. opera houses and department stores, require only 2G:
geimpft genesen
In German, a participle is a word formed from a verb to mostly create the perfect tense and the passive voice. Coupled with a helping verb, it participates—as its name “participle” suggests—in creating the past tense and the passive.
The verbs that are the basis of 3G are:
impfen (to vaccinate) genesen (to recover from an illness) testen
With most verbs we create the participle by adding the prefix ge-.
The participle of verbs that never change their vowel, so-called regular verbs, like sagen, spielen, impfen, and testen end with a -t. The participle of verbs that change their vowel, so-called irregular verbs, like singen, trinken, or genesen, end with -en.
Some verbs, so-called non-separable verbs, form their participle without ge-. They have the privilege to carry the following prefixes:
ver– (e.g. verlieben = to fall in love), be– (e.g. bestellen = to order), emp– (e.g. empfehlen = to recommend), ent– (e.g. enttäuschen = to disappoint), er– (e.g. erleben = to experience), zer– (e.g. zerstören = to destroy), and ge– like genesen.
Separable verbs which cause many students of the German language great suffering take the prefix ge– into their midst.
vorsingen (to audition, recite) → vorgesungen
auftreten (to perform) → aufgetreten
So, why do impfen, genesen, and testen present themselves as participles? Do they express the past tense? No, because the person who wishes to enter a store cannot claim, Ich habe geimpft (I vaccinated). It implies he or she is a doctor who administered the vaccine. Neither does it mean he or she is protected against the virus.
These participles express the passive voice, more specifically the Zustandspassiv, the passive that describes a condition (Zustand) rather than a process (Vorgang).
If I am being vaccinated—by someone we do not want to mention in the sentence—we say, Ich werde geimpft, using the helping verb werden.
I want to present the condition, namely that I am vaccinated, we say, Ich bin geimpft, using the helping verb sein (to be).
3G means, ich bin, du bist, wir sind etc. geimpft, genesen, getestet.
However, a new verb has been threatening the fame of these three participles. Derived from the English “to boost”, the verb boostern hast began to dominate everyone’s conversation. Boostern has pushed aside it first version, the Auffrischung (auffrischen = to refresh, to revitalize), and is often used as participle in passive voice: Ich bin geboostert.
Another verb which I read in the newspapers the other day gets its novelty from its prefix frei (free).
When you are tested positive you have to go into isolation. You cannot eat in restaurants or shop and you cannot have contact with other people for a certain number of days unless—and this is a new rule in some parts of Germany—you test negative before the end of that period. You will be free, you set your self free by testing negative: freitesten. Ich bin freigetestet.
Ach ich fühl's 