Talk:gelingen

RFV discussion: June–July 2015
gelingen exists - at least as an impersonal verb (es gelingt, gelinge, gelang, gelänge).

But is it attestable as a personal verb (e.g. du gelingst)?

(Note: zeno.org has results like "hilf Gott, daß ihrs gelinge!" - but there it is ihrs = ihr's = ihr es, thus gelinge is impersonal.) -80.133.97.107 17:48, 25 June 2015 (UTC) (Note: "dass es dem Ich gelinge" is also 3rd-personal and not 1st-personal). -80.133.107.114 14:55, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * P.S.: gelingen can also be used 3rd-personal like "das Werk gelingt" or "er gelang", but 1st-personal and 2nd-personal usage like "ich gelinge" or "du gelingst" are doubtful and "ich gelinge" shouldn't be attestable if one excludes grammar books and dictionaries which mention the form. In one book it also was: "Zwar können wir nicht, wie der Franzose (ich reussire) sagen, ich gelinge, sondern nur drittpersonl. [= drittpersonlich] es gelingt mir.", that is "we can't say ich gelinge but just es (or er/sie/es) gelingt".
 * I can find a handful of uses, mostly in self-published German poetry (probably because -ingst is a useful rhyme, and because personification is a common poetic technique).


 * 1982, T. Ádám Szabó, Siemers Éva, Moldvai Csángó és Érdélyi népballadák (Apparently a collection of folk songs from Hungary)
 * Wenn du hinein gelingst, in Sorgen du versinkst.
 * 2011, Lorett Sachs, Glück (k)ein Geheimnis: Lyrik für viele Stimmungen, BoD – Books on Demand ISBN 9783842316997, page 7
 * Deine Stunden, Augenblicke mal sehen, ob du gelingst.
 * 2011, Heiko Alexander, Erfolg beginnt im Kopf: Die Geheimnisse des NLP, C.H.Beck ISBN 9783406620096
 * Selbst wenn du mir jetzt nicht gelingst, wird mich das nicht aufhalten!
 * 2015, Lisi Schuur, "Dein Bild", EigenBlick, BoD – Books on Demand ISBN 9783739289410
 * Nach und nach gelingst du mir besser.
 * I'd call this vanishingly rare. In the 1982 quote, "du hinein gelingst" seems to mean something like "get where you want to go"/"make it in the world". The others are examples of addressing an impersonal object as if it were a person: the Lorett Sachs quote is addressing the morning, the "NLP" quote is a self-help book where you're meant to talk to your difficulties as if they were people. I can't parse the 2015 quote, even in the context of the whole poem. Smurrayinchester (talk) 08:20, 3 July 2015 (UTC)
 * The 1982 quote looks like it ought to be gelangst, only that wouldn't rhyme. I think the 2015 quote is supposed to mean something like "I'm succeeding more and more at [forming an image of] you". —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 11:17, 3 July 2015 (UTC)

Can the RfV be closed? -80.133.127.31 22:26, 19 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Two quotes and a note are in the entry.
 * Here with the quote from 2015 there'd be a third one (though IMHO it's not a good one, as it isn't obvious who/what the "du" refers to).
 * Searching for "gelingest" (that's 2nd person singular indicative/conjunctive present active) gives another quote: "Welche achtsame Sorgfalt muß auf dich und auf alle die Hülfen und Mittel, die dich erleichtern, der Mensch verwenden, damit du gelingest!".


 * RFV-passed (it has been established that the verb can be used personally as well as impersonally). - -sche (discuss) 00:01, 29 July 2015 (UTC)