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I would like to know which of the following constructions are correct:

  1. Mir geht's gut, bis auf das ich dich vermisse.

  2. Mir geht's gut, bis auf dass ich dich vermisse.

  3. Mir geht's gut, bis auf das, dass ich dich vermisse.

Google returns results for all three of them, but only (3.) looks grammatically correct to me. Could you please explain the difference between them if more than one is correct? Thanks.

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I would use "Mir geht es gut, abgesehen davon, dass ich dich vermisse." –  rimrul Sep 4 '13 at 16:18

2 Answers 2

up vote 7 down vote accepted

The second one is correct. Here, bis auf is a synonym for außer (engl. except). außer dass is a compound conjunction, and so does bis auf dass. All of them are part of the subordinate clause and that is why there is no comma that separates. Read more about it also here.

The first sentence is wrong because you use das as synonym for welches but which is not the meaning in your case. The third sentence sounds quite clumsy but it's right because das could be replaced with e.g. die Tatsache. In that case you use a comma left to dass (see here).

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You could also add, that the origin of this construction is [imho] a longer construction like bis auf die Tatsache, dass, which got shortened to bis auf dass, as die Tatsache adds no information, because the relative clause started by dass is clearly a Tatsache. –  Toscho Sep 3 '13 at 12:03
@Toscho: Hmm... I can't prove if that's really the origin –  falkb Sep 3 '13 at 13:08

"bis auf dass" is not good German.

You should use "bis auf die Tatsache, dass..."

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