eine Entscheidung treffen: the verb that lives inside the noun
CEFR B2 · part 2
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
Wenn ich das gewusst hätte: what would have happened and did notRegret and reproach, which is what this form is for. You build it with hätte or wäre…lassen: to leave, to have something done, to allow and to be doableOne verb with four distinct jobs, told apart by what sits next to it. Ich lasse den…What goes in front of the verb, and what changes when you move itThat the first slot in a German sentence is a decision, not an accident. Ich fahre…Das ist zu machen, das hast du zu machen: obligation without a modalTwo constructions that say what the modals say without using them, and they are…doch, mal, ja, eben: the words that do not translateThe particles that do not change what a sentence says but do change how it lands, which…Reading German aloud: ei, ie, z, v, w, chReading any German word aloud, knowing which letters sound different from how they are…The rule, in three lines
The fixed noun-plus-verb pairs that replace a single verb, and are the hallmark of administrative and journalistic German. eine Entscheidung treffen is entscheiden. in Frage stellen is to doubt. zur Verfügung stehen is to be available. The verb barely means anything: the sentence lives in the noun.
The usual slip. Picking the verb by its meaning and saying eine Entscheidung machen. It does not sound wrong, it simply does not exist. Each noun brings its own verb, no negotiation. And the register slip: in ordinary conversation you say entscheiden and stop there.
Why it catches you out. English does it constantly —«make a decision», «take a look», «give an answer»— and even argues about make versus take. So the pattern is familiar down to the arguments. Only the German partner verb has to be learnt, one pair at a time.