Use of “es” to anticipate a following clause?

Question

I’m working my way through Hammer’s _Practicing German grammar_ workbook (second edition) using the _German grammar and usage_ textbook (fourth edition). I’m in chapter three and everything is going great, more than 90% correct on all exercises. Then I got to exercise eight… Given two infinitive phrases I am to construct a main and a subordinate clause. “An anticipatory _es_ should be used where usual, and included in brackets where it is optional.” Unfortunately, I cannot grasp when it’s usual and when it’s optional based on the information in the textbook (section 3.6.3). For example, the first three questions have the following answers: 1. Ich habe (es) versäumt, meine Frau anzurufen. 2. Ich habe es abgelehnt, mit ihr in die Schweiz zu fahren. 3. Ich bedauere (es), dass Sie umsonst gekommen sind. Based on the textbook, I cannot see why _es_ is optional on 1 and 3, but mandatory on 2! Further, I really cannot see why _es_ **is not possible** in the following answer to question 4: 4. Ich habe schon gewusst, dass sie fließend Spanisch spricht. despite the book indicating to me otherwise. Maybe the answer to these questions will help me understand why answers 5 and above are as they are.

Answer 1

Hello

First, let me commend you for the courage to work with Hammer's. The book strikes fear into the hearts of most of my German students - too detailed and too abstract. But among German grammars written for English speaking advanced students of German it is probably the best far and wide. That said, I consider Hammer's to be mainly a reference grammar. It's chapters don't build on each other and the first is not necessarily easier than the last - so it is a bit odd to work through this book from front to back (the exercises are an add-on).

But more specifically to your question: You seem to fully comprehend the function of the 'es' (here used as an object) but you wonder why it is sometimes required, optional, or omitted? The answer is, and please don't get frustrated: It depends on the verb that's used in the es-clause. And that, unfortunately, must be memorized, i.e. there is no additional rule to grasp. An L2 learner must conquer these verbs one by one including everything their standard usage implies. Yes, that's asking a lot. Now, I am using the sixth edition but I used to own the fourth as well and remember that it gives you two packs of verbs indicating where native speakers tend to either use 'es' or omit it. In a way, you can can consider this function of the verb to be an extension of its 'valency' (jump to chapter 18, valency, if you haven't heard yet of this concept).

But having said all that, I would recommend not to stress over this. Even the most gifted, most proficient L2 students of German will likely never fully master this particular use of 'es' - and neither do all the natives.

Good luck!