Dutch: Ik ben blij dat ik je niet vergeten ben.

[Chazzwozzer]

Hi,

Ik ben blij dat ik je niet vergeten ben.

I translated it as "I'm glad that I don't forget you.",which is possibly wrong. What does it really mean?

Cheers,
Ekin

 

[elroy]

Almost. It's "I'm glad I haven't forgotten you."

 

[Chazzwozzer]

Thanks, elroy.

Can you explain the grammatical structure of this sentence and how would you translate "I'm glad that I don't forget you." then?

 

[jippie]

Also: "I'm glad that I didn't forget you." But it depends on the context which one is best.

I'm glad that I don't forget you = ik ben blij dat ik je niet vergeet. This is present tense and not very logic: it doesn't make much sense to be glad that you're not forgetting someone.

FYI: the line comes from a famous Dutch song in the seventies by Joost Nuisl, I wanted to post the link but the moderator doesn't let me

 

[elroy]

Can you explain the grammatical structure of this sentence

Ik - I
ben - am
blij - glad

"Ik ben blij" is the main clause.

dat - that
ik - I
je - you
niet - not
vergeten ben - have forgotten

"Dat ik je niet vergeten ben" is the dependent clause.

A "dat" clause kicks the verb to the end of the clause; well, at least the verb has to come after pronouns and the negative particle "niet."

"Ben vergeten" is composed of the helping verb "ben" and the past participle "vergeten." It is also possible to conjugate "vergeten" with "hebben" (so you would say "ik heb vergeten"), but the two are not interchangeable. See this page (in Dutch) for more details.

In a "dat" clause, "vergeten" comes before "ben."

If you have more questions, do let me know.

and how would you translate"I'm glad that I don't forget you." then?

Jippie already answered this question. It's the same thing, except that instead of "vergeten ben" you use the present tense ("vergeet").

 

[panjabigator]

Elroy, can you provide the German equivalent for this? I have a good amount of exposure to Dutch due to one of my roommates, so I got every word of what Chazz wrote. I'd like to see the German as well to see how parallel the structures are.

 

[jazyk]

I'm not Elroy, but here it goes:

Ik ben blij dat ik je niet vergeten ben.
Same word worder: Ich bin glücklich dass ich dich nicht vergessen bin.
Real German: Ich bin glücklich (Ich freue mich darüber), dass ich dich nicht vergessen habe.But this sentence sounds weird to me in any language. Didn't the person mean

Ik ben blij dat je me niet vergeten bent?
Es freut mich, dass du mich nicht vergessen hast.
I'm glad you didn't forget me.

 

[elroy]

Same word worder: Ich bin glücklich dass ich dich nicht vergessen bin.

Just to make things perfectly clear, this is not correct in German! It's a literal word-for-word translation that doesn't make sense in German.

Real German: Ich bin glücklich (Ich freue mich darüber), dass ich dich nicht vergessen habe.

Or, more naturally:

Es freut mich, dass ich Dich nicht vergessen habe.
Es freut mich, Dich nicht vergessen zu haben.

 

[българин]

Hi,

Ik ben blij dat ik je niet vergeten ben.

I translated it as "I'm glad that I don't forget you.",which is possibly wrong. What does it really mean?

Cheers,
Ekin

If you want to say the opposite, "I am glad that you didn't forget me". Would it be "Ik ben blij dat je me niet vergeten ben"?

 

[optimistique]

If you want to say the opposite, "I am glad that you didn't forget me". Would it be "Ik ben blij dat je me niet vergeten ben"?

if you add a 't' to 'ben', yes, indeed (Ik ben blij dat je me niet vergeten bent)