Report feedback, qualify conclusions and negotiate a workable pilot.
Use informal du with a colleague; keep your arguments clear and constructive.
A fictional team is testing a new way of working. Choose the concerns and conditions you want to raise. All decisions stay inside this practice conversation.
This is a fictional practice situation. The dialogue below follows one example path; interactive practice lets you choose other meanings, complete the grammar and listen to German audio.
Report a colleague’s comment without presenting it as your own confirmed fact.
Team colleague
Welche Rückmeldungen hast du aus dem Team bekommen?
What feedback have you received from the team?
One possible reply
Eine Kollegin sagt, sie habe zu wenig Zeit für Rückfragen.
Konjunktiv I marks attributed speech. Use habe, sei or könne according to the verb in the reported statement.
Read the grammar guideExplain why positive feedback does not prove everything.
Team colleague
Die Mehrheit findet den Vorschlag gut. Reicht das nicht aus?
The majority likes the proposal. Is that not enough?
One possible reply
Daraus lässt sich nicht ableiten, dass jede Aufgabe gleich gut funktioniert.
Daraus lässt sich nicht ableiten means that a conclusion does not follow from the evidence. After dass, the finite verb goes last.
Read the grammar guideSet a condition for agreeing to the trial.
Team colleague
Unter welchen Bedingungen würdest du dem Versuch zustimmen?
Under what conditions would you agree to the trial?
One possible reply
Ich bin einverstanden, sofern die Zuständigkeiten geklärt werden.
Sofern means provided that. It introduces a subordinate clause with its finite verb at the end.
Read the grammar guideReflect on how an earlier decision could have gone differently.
Team colleague
Was hätten wir bei der letzten Planung besser machen können?
What could we have done better in the last planning process?
One possible reply
Wenn wir früher gefragt hätten, hätten wir die Sorgen besser verstanden.
An unreal past uses hätten or wären plus Partizip II. It describes an alternative to what actually happened.
Read the grammar guideSuggest a way to make the plan manageable.
Team colleague
Wie könnten wir das jetzt praktisch lösen?
How could we solve this in practice now?
One possible reply
Die Aufgabe lässt sich in kleine Schritte aufteilen.
Sich lassen plus a bare infinitive expresses can be. Sein plus zu-infinitive expresses what needs to be done in the other options.
Read the grammar guideDescribe what will have been completed by the review.
Team colleague
Was wollen wir bis zu unserem nächsten Treffen erreicht haben?
What do we want to have achieved by our next meeting?
One possible reply
Bis dahin werden wir die Rückmeldungen gesammelt haben.
Futur II uses werden plus Partizip II and haben or sein. The auxiliary follows the corresponding Perfekt construction.
Read the grammar guideEinverstanden. Wir halten die Vereinbarung fest und werten den Versuch gemeinsam aus.
Agreed. We will record the agreement and evaluate the trial together.