German Notice: Three Misreadings of One Short Text
Navid is answering comprehension items on a short German notice:
'Ab dem 1. Oktober öffnet die Stadtbibliothek montags bis freitags schon um acht Uhr, weil viele Schüler vor dem Unterricht dort lernen wollen. Wer einen Leseausweis beantragen möchte, meldet sich im Erdgeschoss an und legt einen Personalausweis vor. Bücher, die nach der Leihfrist zurückkommen, kosten 20 Cent pro Tag. Wegen der Bauarbeiten bleibt der Seiteneingang bis Dezember geschlossen; bitte benutzen Sie den Haupteingang.'
His three answers: (a) 'Man kann ohne Anmeldung Bücher ausleihen' - TRUE; (b) 'Die Gebühr beträgt einmalig 20 Cent' - TRUE; (c) 'Der Seiteneingang ist das ganze Jahr geschlossen' - TRUE. His vocabulary notes gloss beantragen as 'answer' and wegen as 'during'.
1. Correct answer (a). What does the notice actually require before borrowing, and which words decide it?
Read the worked answer
The key sentence is: Wer einen Leseausweis beantragen möchte, meldet sich im Erdgeschoss an und legt einen Personalausweis vor. Three verbs settle the question:
- beantragen = to apply for. Navid's gloss 'answer' comes from confusing it with beantworten (to answer a question). A Leseausweis is a library card, so the sentence means 'anyone who wants to apply for a library card'.
- sich anmelden = to register, and it is separable: meldet ... an.
- vorlegen = to present, show (a document); also separable: legt ... vor. Personalausweis is an identity card.
So borrowing requires applying for a card, registering on the ground floor, and showing ID. The statement 'one can borrow without registering' is the exact opposite of the text - FALSE.
Note also möchte, the Konjunktiv II of mögen, used as 'would like to'. It marks a condition ('whoever wishes to'), not a possibility, so it cannot be read as 'whoever happens to want to'.
The general method for German notices: a separable verb must be reassembled from its two halves before the sentence can be understood, and the prefix at the end of the clause is the part that carries the meaning.
2. Correct answer (b) using the relative clause, and explain why the comma matters.
Read the worked answer
The sentence is: Bücher, die nach der Leihfrist zurückkommen, kosten 20 Cent pro Tag.
The relative clause die nach der Leihfrist zurückkommen has its finite verb (zurückkommen, again separable) in final position. That is the signal that we are inside a subordinate clause and must keep reading to the following comma before the main predicate arrives: 'books that come back after the lending period ... cost ...'. A candidate who stops at 20 Cent has skipped the predicate that tells him what the fee applies to.
The predicate is kosten 20 Cent pro Tag - per day. So the charge is a running one: 20 cents for each late book for each day it is overdue. It is emphatically not a one-off fine. The statement is FALSE.
The comma pair is the practical cue: in German, relative clauses are always set off by commas, so a comma plus a clause-final finite verb means 'hold the main clause open'. Navid treated the clause boundary as the end of the information - the single most expensive habit in German reading items.
3. Correct answer (c): fix 'wegen' and explain what 'bis Dezember geschlossen' plus 'benutzen Sie' actually say.
Read the worked answer
wegen + genitive = because of, not 'during' - that is während, also with the genitive. So the closure is caused by the construction work, not co-extensive with it.
bis Dezember geschlossen: bis sets an end point - closed up to December, i.e. expected to reopen in December. The sentence therefore does not support 'closed the whole year'. The only real ambiguity is whether bis Dezember includes December itself; standard reading is 'until, and not after'. The statement is FALSE.
Two structural points worth extracting. First, bleibt ... geschlossen is a verb frame, not two verbs: bleibt plus a past participle used predicatively, meaning 'remains closed'. Second, bitte benutzen Sie den Haupteingang is a formal imperative: verb first, Sie after it. The word order is the marker of the imperative, not of a question, so the sentence is an instruction to use the main entrance.
Pattern to memorise for this item type: preposition + case, verb frame, and clause-final verb. Navid's three errors all came from reading word-by-word rather than clause-by-clause.