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A German text I am reading has the following sentences:

“Wenn der DAX über längere Zeit steigt, dann geht es der Börse in Deutschland gut. Wenn er längere Zeit fällt, geht es der Börse schlecht. “

Why is “längere Zeit” used here and not “lange Zeit”?

guidot
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Michael
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  • Do you think you could include your question in your comment into your "real" question? Because any clarification in comments will only survive as part of the question body, not as comment. – Shegit Brahm Apr 20 '20 at 05:58
  • I now understand the use of "absolute" or "false" comparatives in German. Thank you all for the assistance. BTW, Hammer's German Grammar and Usage provides a list of the adjectives that can be used as false comparatives in German -- lang is among them. I really appreciate the insights provided here. Thank you. – Michael Apr 20 '20 at 14:05

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To me "längere" feels less strong than "lange".

Wenn der DAX über eine längere Zeit steigt, geht es Deutschland gut.

The "längere" here tells me that the author is talking about some weeks.

Wenn der DAX über eine lange Zeit steigt, geht es Deutschland gut.

The "lange" tells me that it's about some months or longer.

It depends on context and subjective factors how you interprete the time spans but I'd say in general the "längere" expresses a shorter one than "lange".

Think about a similar case:

Da ist ein alter/älterer Mann.

When saying "alter Mann" I think about someone who is already older than ~ 60. When saying "älterer Mann" I think about someone who is around ~ 50.

I think this is because "längere" or "älterer" are helpful to avoid saying the very clear adjectives "lange" or "alter". They are expressing that something is close to being describeable by the corresponding adjective but not quite. This is what I mean by feels less strong – is weaker.

Maybe you can think about it like that: Someone is young, "jung", someone else is not young anymore; he is older, "älter". When you say he is old, "alt", then you don't have this fine relation to the opposite adjective anymore. From this perspective "älter" is between "jung" and "alt".

In analogy to the "Zeit" example: kurze Zeit – längere Zeit – lange Zeit

akuzminykh
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    I don't agree with your 50/60 age limits. In my experience it strongly depends on the age of the speaker: neither would one being fifty consider himself as older, nor would he label his age category as such. – guidot Apr 20 '20 at 07:26
  • Compare English 'long period' / 'extended period'. – RHa Apr 20 '20 at 09:03