So lange hast du überlegt - und da ist dir kein deutsches Wort für "gap year" eingefallen? Schade!


Grundsätzlich gilt:

"I've heard" (Present Perfect) = Ich habe (irgendwann, irgendwo, evtl. auch immer wieder) mal gehört ...

"I heard" (Simple Past) = Ich habe (zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt, bei einer bestimmten Gelegenheit) gehört ...


Sicher wird das aber in der Umgangs- bzw. Alltagssprache nicht immer so genau differenziert.

Sicher???

In this context, I think I would normally say
"I heard that you are thinking about..."
in the sense "Someone told me that . . .".

I would in fact understand it, not so much as a statement of fact - it is not the fact that I heard it that is important - but rather as an expression of the "strength of modality", indicating my commitment to the truth of the proposition "you are thinking about . . .". In this respect I would regard it as similar to use of sentence adverbs like "apparently".
Other alternatives might be:
"I gather you are thinking about . . ."
"You are thinking about . . ., I believe".

I think I would be more likely to use "I've heard . . ." when I am really talking about what I have heard (and therfore now know).

@ 2 H.B., nach Duden wird das Adverb 'sicher' mit zwei Bedeutungen verwendet. Ausschlaggebend ist wie immer der - ehhemmm ... : Kontext. Hier also a.:

a. höchstwahrscheinlich, mit ziemlicher Sicherheit
b. gewiss, sicherlich, ohne Zweifel

I'd be more likely to say

"I hear you're taking a gap year."

This puts the gap year in focus and not the fact that I have been told (or was told).

There's a slight difference in focus between using I've heard that and I heard that .

If you use the present perfect I've heard that the topic sounds more current, the latest news etc. You really want to talk about it.

If you use the past simple I heard that , you are introducing an element of distance. Maybe it's not quite such an interesting topic for you. Or you might want to use this tense if you think the topic is sensitive and you don't want to intrude too much -remember the famous British reticence.

As #5 says, you could use the present simple too. Again this is fairly direct.

Vielen Dank für eure Hilfe!