5 ms·

I guess the unknown German word mentioned in the post is probably "sonst". It can be translated to "otherwise" or "else". And "wenn...dann...sonst" sounds perfe

by wozer 6y ago

I guess the unknown German word mentioned in the post is probably "sonst". It can be translated to "otherwise" or "else". And "wenn...dann...sonst" sounds perfectly natural in German.

formerly_proven 6y ago
Willing to bet it's either "sonst" or "andernfalls"... I'd suspect the latter, the former is a little bit too informal for mathematicians. Both of these are commonly used for case enumerations in math.
- wozer 6y ago
  Maybe. On the other hand, "andernfalls" is a bit long as a keyword.
- BlackFingolfin 6y ago
  As a research mathematician, I happily use "sonst" in e.g. case distinctions (well, in my undergrad lecture notes; papers are written in English ) and wouldn't use "andernfalls" as it is simply too long :-). Moreover, if they had looked up "andernfalls" in a dictionary, they would have found "otherwise" as translation. For "sonst", the number 1 translation in all dictionaries I have around or found online, is "else". So I firmly believe they used "sonst".
SilasX 6y ago
Except that you’d then have to make all the operators postfix to match how German puts the verbs at the end of subordinate clauses :-p “wenn a b ==...”
- Tainnor 6y ago
  ah but it's more complicated because only the main verb is at the end of the sentence, so if you need an auxiliary or you have a copular construction like "ist gleich", you need to split the verb phrase... in fact, Germans would say (and do say, e.g. in mathematics) "wenn a gleich b" as a shorthand for "wenn a gleich b ist".
  - mhink 6y ago
    Interesting. Seems sorta like the English shorthand "if a less-than b, do this" (as opposed to "if a IS less than b, do this"). "Equal" is almost a different story since it works as a verb as well as an adjective.
    - Tainnor 6y ago
      Yes, in English has the verb "to equal", which German doesn't. The verb "gleichen" doesn't work, because it means "to be similar to".
enf 6y ago
Thanks for the insider German knowledge!

by wozer 6y ago

I guess the unknown German word mentioned in the post is probably "sonst". It can be translated to "otherwise" or "else". And "wenn...dann...sonst" sounds perfectly natural in German.

formerly_proven 6y ago

Willing to bet it's either "sonst" or "andernfalls"... I'd suspect the latter, the former is a little bit too informal for mathematicians. Both of these are commonly used for case enumerations in math.

wozer 6y ago
Maybe. On the other hand, "andernfalls" is a bit long as a keyword.
BlackFingolfin 6y ago
As a research mathematician, I happily use "sonst" in e.g. case distinctions (well, in my undergrad lecture notes; papers are written in English ) and wouldn't use "andernfalls" as it is simply too long :-). Moreover, if they had looked up "andernfalls" in a dictionary, they would have found "otherwise" as translation. For "sonst", the number 1 translation in all dictionaries I have around or found online, is "else". So I firmly believe they used "sonst".

SilasX 6y ago

Except that you’d then have to make all the operators postfix to match how German puts the verbs at the end of subordinate clauses :-p “wenn a b ==...”

Tainnor 6y ago
ah but it's more complicated because only the main verb is at the end of the sentence, so if you need an auxiliary or you have a copular construction like "ist gleich", you need to split the verb phrase... in fact, Germans would say (and do say, e.g. in mathematics) "wenn a gleich b" as a shorthand for "wenn a gleich b ist".
- mhink 6y ago
  Interesting. Seems sorta like the English shorthand "if a less-than b, do this" (as opposed to "if a IS less than b, do this"). "Equal" is almost a different story since it works as a verb as well as an adjective.
  - Tainnor 6y ago
    Yes, in English has the verb "to equal", which German doesn't. The verb "gleichen" doesn't work, because it means "to be similar to".

enf 6y ago

Thanks for the insider German knowledge!