What is the word order in german

Just when German is starting to make sense, you’re thrown another curveball: the elements of German sentences can move around … a lot.

We’re not used to this! To our English brains, having words swap places in a sentence drastically changes what is being said (including the option of the final result being utter nonsense).

So, when we try to translate a German sentence word-for-word into English, we can end up with some wonky, confusing sentences. It’s easy to feel lost, fast.

Thankfully, there are some handy principles and patterns that govern German word order. There are just FOUR sentence patterns used and a handful of rules governing other word order nuances.

You’ll learn:

• how word order works in English vs. German
• the correct positioning of German ‘slots’
• what clauses are and why it matters
• why ‘time manner place’ is too simplistic (but the real rule is easier!)
• when & how to use the subordinating sentence pattern

Section 1 – The Basics:
Getting the hang of German word order.

The word order differences between English and German are due to these languages belonging to entirely different categories of language — analytic and inflected, respectively.

English uses very rigid word order because it must, in lieu of other grammar components which were erased from the language over the centuries.

But German has relatively flexible word order because it can — certain grammar elements, i.e. the case system & declensions, make that possible!

So, what is word order exactly and how does it function in English vs. German?

What is word order?

‘Word order’ refers to a set of rules that determine how we can properly construct sentences in order to convey our desired meaning.

As surely comes as no surprise at this point, there are different word order patterns in English vs. German. As per usual, English has simpler sentence structure options while the possibilities in German are more numerous and complex.

While this means that there’s, again, some new principles to learn in order to master German sentence structure, I personally really appreciate the additional creativity of German sentences and I hope you’ll learn to find it fun, too!

On a meta-level, there are FOUR word order patterns used for sentences as a whole and then additional rules governing the word order of particular elements within the sentence.

Here are the four patterns:

1. standard
2. inverted
3. transposed
4. subordinated

In order to understand the super-nuanced details of word order, we need to first take a step back and afford ourselves a bird’s eye view of these meta German sentence structure patterns (<– if you haven’t already read this ‘starter guide’ to German word order, stop and read this first before continuing here!).

As always, you can leverage your advantages as an adult learner of German by comparing English & German grammar structures, so …

English & German Word Order, Compared

Check out these examples of German sentences and their word-for-word English translations:

Pattern #1 (Standard): Ich wollte meine Oma anrufen.
(I wanted to call my grandma.)

Pattern #2 (Inverted): Wollte ich meine Oma anrufen
(‘Wanted I my grandma to call?’)

Pattern #3 (Transposed): Meine Oma wollte ich anrufen
(‘My grandma wanted I to call.’)

Pattern #1 + #4 (Standard + Subordinating): Ich wollte meine Oma anrufen, weil ich sie liebe!
(I wanted to call my grandma ‘because I her love!’)

WHOA. Notice how it’s ONLY pattern #1 that translates cleanly into English. When we translate patterns #2-4 word-for-word, the English versions sound very weird. Let’s look at this more closely!

Pattern #1: Standard

The standard pattern in either English or German can be broken down into FOUR positions:

ENGLISH: SUBJECT + VERB + MORE VERBS + MORE NOUNS
GERMAN: SUBJECT + VERB + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS

NOTE: the ‘subject’, ‘verb’, and ‘more verbs’ are ALL color-coded pink because they make up a complete, standard clause (more on that below) and pink, specifically, is the color I use to denote the nominative case and the verb(s) paired with it.

Notice, too, of course, that German & English swap around the ‘more nouns’ and ‘more verbs’.

Example:

I want to bake my neighbor a cake.
Ich möchte meinem Nachbarn einen Kuchen backen.

NOTE: after the nominative [subject] noun is accounted for in English, any additional nouns will be objective nouns, which I color-code green (these split into the accusative and dative cases in German, which I color-code yellow and orange, respectively; but we’ll utilize the English concept of the objective case for now).

We can fancy-up these sentences with adverbs and adjectives that still fall under the general noun or verb headings:

I want to quickly bake my kind neighbor a large cake.
Ich möchte meinem netten Nachbarn schnell einen großen Kuchen backen.

Pattern #2: Inverted

Then, when we use the inverted pattern (#2), we swap around the subject noun & verb and change nothing else:

Do I want to bake my neighbor a cake?
Möchte ich meinem Nachbarn einen Kuchen backen?

Do I want to quickly bake my kind neighbor a large cake?
Möchte ich meinem netten Nachbarn schnell einen großen Kuchen backen?

NOTE: in English, we had to add the conjugated verbs ‘do’ in this instance. For more on the THREE types of present tense verbs in English (but just ONE in German!), read here.

Pattern #3: Transposed

We can use the transposed word order (three different ways!) in German with this particular example, but not in English!

Standard: Ich möchte meinem netten Nachbarn schnell einen großen Kuchen backen.
Transposed 1: Meinem netten Nachbarn möchte ich schnell einen großen Kuchen backen.
Transposed 2: Einen großen Kuchen möchte ich meinem netten Nachbarn schnell backen.
Transposed 3: Schnell möchte ich meinem netten Nachbarn einen großen Kuchen backen.

One key point here is that ONE element at a time (whether a ‘slot’ or an adverb) may be transposed to the front of the sentence for emphasis.

If you think in terms of there being FOUR positions in the sentence, then the 3rd one (‘more nouns’) can break down into 3A, 3B, 3C, etc., giving us these transposed word order formulas:

3A + Verb + Subject + 3B + 3C + More Verbs
3B + Verb + Subject + 3A + 3C + More Verbs
3C + Verb + Subject + 3A + 3B + More Verbs

The transposed pattern in German also includes us moving the subject to the other side of the verb — but note how this DOESN’T happen in English:

I’m visiting my grandma tomorrow → Tomorrow, I’m visiting my grandma.

This starts to touch upon 2 principles concerning the subject noun & the verb that underpin word order in both German and English (although the application is somewhat different!)

Pattern #4: Subordinating

In German, this word order pattern is headed up by either a relative pronoun (see chart below) or a subordinating conjunction (see list below).

Here is the pattern #4 formula:

Relative Pronoun / Subordinating Conjunction + Subject + More Nouns + More Verbs + Verb

Examples:

…die ich in der Stadt gesehen habe (…who/that I have seen in town)

…weil ich die Katze gesehen habe (…because I have seen the cat)

If we compare pattern #4 to our standard, there are interesting points to notice:

STANDARD: SUBJECT + VERB + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS.
SUBORDINATING: Relative Pronoun / Subordinating Conjunction + Subject + More Nouns + More Verbs + Verb

1. the pronoun / conjunction is inserted in front of the subject
2. the verb moves from position #2 to the very end of the pattern!

As you’ll see below when we go into even more detail, the subordinating pattern BREAKS the two rules that govern German word order.

Notice in looking at the same examples how this word order pattern in English isn’t so much a new pattern as simply our standard pattern, expanded:

…who/that I have seen in town
…because I have seen the cat

Here we have our standard pattern in English (SUBJECT + VERB + MORE VERBS + MORE NOUNS), with a relative pronoun or a conjunction simply tacked on in front.

Finally, observe that in both German and English, this pattern doesn’t stand alone independently. The … is for the REST of the sentence that the subordinating pattern has to piggyback onto in order to make sense.
This brings us to the more in-depth topic of clauses, which are important to understand in order to help you know when you need to use which of the 4 word order patterns.

Section 2: Putting it into practice
When & how to use German word order

Learn German word order smarter, not harder

German-learners don’t usually know that there are just the FOUR meta word order patterns, nor the underpinning principles that guide them. But you’re learning the smarter, not harder way!

Again, the four patterns used in sentences are:

1. standard
2. inverted
3. transposed
4. subordinated

We need to get slightly technical here by saying that a ‘sentence’ is comprised of one or more distinct sections, which are called CLAUSES.

The most basic clause possible involves simply a SUBJECT NOUN and a VERB, i.e. a person, place, idea, or thing that IS or DOES something:

STANDARD: The plane flies. Some bees are buzzing.
INVERTED: Is the plane flying? Are some bees buzzing?

At the heart of things, we’re STILL using this basic clause (subject + verb) even when we add in embellishments (e.g. adjectives & adverbs) to fancy-up the [standard] sentence:

His brand-new car positively shines! The bitingly cold northerly wind is blowing.

Sentence patterns #1, 2, and 3 all exist as just SINGLE clauses (regardless of how basic or fancy they may be), which can be split into up to FOUR positions, which we started looking at earlier:

ENGLISH: SUBJECT + VERB + MORE VERBS + MORE NOUNS.
GERMAN: SUBJECT + VERB + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS

So, even a longer sentence (that involves info in ALL of these four positions) is still a SINGLE clause:

English: I wanted to call my grandma.
German: Ich wollte meine Oma anrufen.

But we can ADD to these single clauses (making the sentence richer & more complex), by including pattern #4 ‘subordinating’ clauses:

Pattern #1: Ich wollte meine Oma anrufen. (I wanted to call my grandma.)
Pattern #1 + #4: Ich wollte meine Oma anrufen, weil ich sie liebe! (I wanted to call my grandma ‘because I her love!’)

We need to further sink our teeth into how to IDENTIFY & LABEL clauses within a sentence so that you can know which of the 4 patterns to use, when, and how!

How to dissect German word order

OK, so we’ve seen above that rather than letting German word order remain a perplexing enigma, we can parse out 4 exhaustive patterns used for German clauses:

1. standard
2. inverted
3. transposed
4. subordinated

Before we can really dig into these 4 patterns, we need to look more closely at clauses. Let’s check out an English example first:

The woman who I met yesterday told me that she and her family just moved to town.

OK, so, in this English sentence it’s VERY unclear where the separate clauses are. Precisely because the concept of clauses is generally not so important in English as it is in German, there’s no reason to make the different clauses stand out.

To help you out, here’s the same sentence now color-coded to show the different clauses:

The woman who I met yesterday told me that she and her family just moved to town.

So there are THREE clauses in this sentence: the pink (which includes the one green word), the red, and the maroon.

Do you know which one is the STANDARD clause? Right! The woman … told me.

Both the red and the green clauses are pattern #4 subordinating clauses.

Before we further analyze the sentence (which we’ll do in the ‘Digging Deeper’ section below), first note how German makes these same clauses very obvious because clauses — which, again, always use one of 4 patterns — are crucial elements in German sentences:

Die Frau, die ich gestern kennengelernt habe,  sagte mir, dass sie und ihre Familie neulich hierher umgezogen sind.

Do you see how, in German, the clauses are set apart by commas? Sweet! That’s going to make it a lot easier to identify separate clauses, which will then help us be able to determine which of the 4 word order patterns we need to use for each one.

But, first, we need to finally discuss the 2 principles that underpin our 4 patterns! Understanding the ‘whys’ will make it SO much easier to apply the patterns correctly.

Two German Word Order Rules

Here, again, are the FOUR German sentence structures (comprised of 1+ clauses!):

1. standard
2. inverted
3. transposed
4. subordinated

The key to understanding firstly the standard word order pattern and then the 3 deviations from it is recognizing either the changed position of the finite verb (i.e. the verb that has been conjugated to ‘agree’ with the subject noun) and/or the changed position of the subject noun.

These are the TWO underlying rules that each pattern either follows, bends or breaks:

1. The subject noun (always in the nominative case) MUST be right next to the finite verb.
2. The finite verb MUST be the 2ND element (or ‘in the 2nd position’) in the sentence.

What is the finite verb, you ask? Here is our standard formula with that specification added:

SUBJECT + FINITE VERB + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS

It’s helpful to note that in English, we have these EXACT SAME 2 rules and –as we’ve seen above — English also has standard, default sentence pattern #1 … but pattern #2 in English is slightly altered, pattern #3 is rare, and pattern #4 doesn’t really exist as such!

Let’s look now at each pattern again, but in more detail.

Word Order Pattern #1: Standard

In a standard sentence in BOTH English AND German, the subject noun (i.e. nominative case) comes first, followed by the finite (a.k.a. conjugated) verb.

All other information (e.g. accusative case, dative case, adverbs, etc.) comes after those 2 elements (<– we’ll look at word order details for these elements below in the digging deeper section, including the departures between English & German at this point).

So, pattern #1, the standard sentence structure is: NOMINATIVE + FINITE VERB + …

Examples:

The man sings.
The man sings … a song.
The man sings … his little baby a song.
The man sings … his little baby a song every night before bedtime.

Der Mann singt.
Der Mann singt … ein Lied.
Der Mann singt … seinem kleinen Baby ein Lied.
Der Mann singt … seinem kleinen Baby jede Nacht vor dem Einschlafen ein Lied.

To drill it home, notice that no matter what else is being added (more nouns or more verbs), the standard pattern of NOMINATIVE + FINITE VERB remains the same, as indicated by the color-coding.

Thus, standard pattern #1 is so called because it follows BOTH of our rules:

1. The subject noun is right next to the finite verb.
2. The finite verb is the 2nd element in the sentence.

Now, we will see how the remaining 3 word order patterns deviate from our standard pattern by bending or breaking either rule #1 and/or #2.

Word Order Pattern #2: Inverted

This sentence pattern is called ‘inverted’ precisely because the finite verb & nominative case swap places: FINITE VERB + NOMINATIVE CASE + …

Singt der Mann? Singt der Mann … ein Lied? Etc.

In this inverted sentence pattern, we see the nominative case still right next to the finite verb (rule #1), BUT the finite verb is no longer in the 2nd position in the sentence (breaking rule #2).

This inverted pattern is used only in TWO instances in German:

1. Yes / No Questions (as seen above ^^)
2. Commands (i.e. the ‘imperative’ mood)

Yes/No Questions

Observe the subject & verb swap in these examples:

Kommst du mich besuchen? (Will you come visit me?)
Regnet es? (Is it raining?)
Hat das viel gekostet? (Did that cost a lot?)

Note that open-ended questions using ‘question words’ (e.g. who, what, when, where, why, and how) look similar to the transposed pattern (#3) in that the ‘question word’ comes first, then the verb (still faithfully staying in position #2) and then the subject (which is still right next to the verb, just on the other side):

Warum kommst du mich besuchen? (Why are you coming to visit me?)
Wann regnet es? (When [will] it rain?)
Wie viel hat das gekostet (How much did it cost?)

Commands

Geh (du)! (Go!)
Hört (ihr) auf! (Stop!)
Bleiben (Sie) stehen! (Stay!)

NOTE: the subject noun is almost always dropped in German commands.

If it IS added (again, this is rare and for specific purposes), it will be in the 2ND position in the sentence because it’s traded spots with the finite verb, which is usually in the 2nd position, as per our standard pattern!

However, in English commands, if we add in the subject (in English as in German, this is unusual), we still use the standard pattern of NOMINATIVE + FINITE VERB in commands: (you) go!, (you) stop!, (you) stay!

Word Order Pattern #3: Transposed

In this sentence pattern, the finite verb still stays in position #2, but the subject noun is being bumped from its standard position as the first element in the sentence to being behind the verb (which still keeps it next to the finite verb, so we’re ‘bending’ the standard application of rule #1, if you will).

What is being transposed to the front of the sentence (i.e. ‘position 1’)? Answer: any single element from ‘position 3’ in the sentence, which can be an object noun, prepositional phrase, or adverb (<– more details and examples below in the ‘Digging Deeper’ section).

Here’s a simple example:

Tomorrow I will go shopping. (Standard #1 pattern: I will go shopping tomorrow.)
Morgen gehe ich einkaufen. (Standard #1 pattern: Ich gehe morgen einkaufen.)

Take a moment now to notice the discrepancy between English & German here!

In English, we can take the adverb ‘tomorrow’ and place it at the front of the sentence, BUT it’s still followed by our standard pattern of NOMINATIVE + FINITE VERB!

In German, though, we have to honor rule #2 and keep the finite verb as the 2nd element.

This word order pattern (and the 4th) are the most difficult for German-learners because it operates differently from English. But if you can remember Rule #2 about the finite verb being in position #2 in the sentence, you’ll soon have even these new structures under your belt!

Word Order Pattern #4: Subordinating

Finally! The 4th and last sentence structure pattern that German uses is subordinating. 

Relative clauses and clauses headed up by a subordinating conjunction are the top examples of instances in which we need to use this particular pattern.

This pattern breaks BOTH of our rules!

The subject noun and finite verb are separated from each other (breaking rule #1) because the subject noun stays in its standard position as element #1, but the finite verb moves to the very end of the clause (and is therefore breaking rule #2 about ‘always’ being in the 2nd position in the sentence).

Let’s revisit this sentence briefly:

Die Frau, die ich gestern kennengelernt habe, sagte mir, dass sie und ihre Familie neulich hierher umgezogen sind.

(The woman who I met yesterday told me that she and her family just moved to town.)

Here, both the German red-coded clause (which is a relative clause) and the German maroon-coded clause (headed up by the subordinating conjunction ‘dass’) have the finite verbs (‘habe’ and ‘sind’, respectively) kicked to the very end of the clause, which makes these 2 clauses fit word order pattern #4: subordinating.

When to use which pattern?

The whole point of having a standard pattern (#1) is that it’s what we default to unless we have a clear reason not to!

So, you need to use standard default word order pattern #1 unless…

1. you’re asking a question or giving a command (use pattern #2)
2. you want to emphasize one of the components of position 3’s ‘more nouns’ (use pattern #3)
3. you’re adding information that starts with a relative pronoun or subordinating conjunction (use pattern #4)

Now, you need to fully understand what comprises the ‘more nouns’ (Position 3) and ‘more verbs’ (Position 4) sections!

Digging Deeper

Let’s kick this off by looking at all our word order formulas again:

1: SUBJECT + VERB + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS
2: VERB + SUBJECT + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS
3: MORE NOUNS (A) + VERB + SUBJECT + MORE NOUNS (B, C, ETC.) + MORE VERBS
4: … PRONOUN / CONJUNCTION + SUBJECT + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS + VERB

You have covered A LOT of ground already, but we still need to dig deeper into the exact contents of position 3 (more nouns) and position 4 (more verbs) and also the particular word order to use within these positions.

Word Order of ‘Position 3’ Contents in a German Clause

Here is an example from above with some prepositional phrases added:

GERMAN: Ich möchte meinem netten Nachbarn am kommenden Sonntag schnell mit meiner Mama bei ihr zuhause einen großen Kuchen backen.

WORD-FOR-WORD TRANSLATION: I would like my nice neighbor this coming Sunday quickly a large cake with my mother at her house to bake.

AUTHENTIC ENGLISH: I would like to quickly bake a large cake with my mother at her house for my nice neighbor this coming Sunday.

There is a very large ‘position 3’ in this standard-pattern-#1 sentence!

Remember that our word order pattern is this:

SUBJECT + VERB + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS

And each of these categories ^^ is a ‘position’ in the sentence:

SUBJECT (1) + VERB (2) + MORE NOUNS (3) + MORE VERBS (4)

So, what all can be put into position 3 (more nouns)?

‘More Nouns’ can include any (or all!) of these components:

direct objects, indirect objects, prepositional phrases, adverbs

We see EACH of these possible ‘position 3’ components in our example sentence:

Ich möchte meinem netten Nachbarn am kommenden Sonntag schnell mit meiner Mama bei ihr zuhause einen großen Kuchen backen.

meinem netten Nachbarn = indirect object (dative)

am kommenden Sonntag = dative prepositional phrase (time)

schnell = adverb (manner)

mit meiner Mama = dative prepositional phrase (manner)

bei ihr zuhause = dative prepositional phrase (place)

einen großen Kuchen = direct object (accusative) 

A shortcut way to think about the contents of each of 4 positions in a German sentence is this:

• Position 1 is filled just with the subject noun (in the nominative case, always!)
• Position 2 is filled just with the conjugated / finite verb (so, literally just one word!)
• Position 4 is for additional verbs in various forms (infinitive here ^^)
• So, we can think of position 3 as being the ‘catchall’ position for everything else. 🙂 

That leaves us with only the problem of needing to know in what ORDER to put the various components of position 3.

It would be rare to have a position 3 so jammed packed as in this example sentence above, but if you do have all those elements, this is the standard order you’d need to use:

Indirect Object (Dative) + Time + Manner + Place + Direct Object (Accusative)

The indirect and direct objects go into their respective ‘slots’ with either determiners and/or adjectives also present. Time / Manner / Place [TMP] can be comprised of prepositional phrases (which then also go into ‘slots’) or just adverbs, which stand alone. 

NOTE: if you have multiple ‘time’ aspects, you need to list them from less to more specific, e.g. am Mittwoch um 18 Uhr.

NOTE: while this is the standard word order for the contents of ‘position 3’ in a given sentence, keep in mind that you can change the emphasis of the sentence not only by using the transposed sentence structure pattern #3, as discussed much earlier, but also by utilizing essential the opposite option of placing the desired element at the very END of position 3!

For example, if I wanted to emphasize WHEN I’m making this cake, I could take the standard sentence and change it into either of these 2 versions:

STANDARD: Ich möchte meinem netten Nachbarn am kommenden Sonntag schnell mit meiner Mama bei ihr zuhause einen großen Kuchen backen.

TRANSPOSED (A): Am kommenden Sonntag möchte meinem netten Nachbarn schnell mit meiner Mama bei ihr zuhause einen großen Kuchen backen.

TRANSPOSED (B): Ich möchte meinem netten Nachbarn schnell mit meiner Mama bei ihr zuhause einen großen Kuchen am kommenden Sonntag backen.

This said, note that there is a preference for using our traditional transposed (A) pattern! The (B) option is grammatically correct and might be seen occasionally, but the (A) variant is much more common and thus more authentic. 

Contents of ‘Position 4’ (more verbs!) in a German Clause

Hopefully our meta- word order pattern is very familiar by now, but here it is again:

SUBJECT + VERB + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS

For example:

Der Mann hätte seinem kleinen Baby ein Lied singen wollen, aber …
(The man would have liked to sing his little baby a song, but …)

Remember that the standard sentence structure in English flips around the ‘more nouns’ and ‘move verbs’ positions as you can see in the example above.

OK, so what in a GERMAN sentence qualifies as more verbs? 

There are 3 categories of verbal material that typically come in this position 4 in a clause:

1. verb infinitives (e.g. singen, wollen)
2. past participles (e.g. gesungen, gewollt)
3. separable prefixes (e.g. an, ab, auf, aus)

For comparison, English will also use verb infinitives or past participles in the ‘more verbs’ category, but there are no separable prefixes in English and –instead– English makes use of present participles (e.g. going, singing, eating, etc.), which don’t exist in German!

Since German is our focus, let’s continue looking at the same example from above:

We see verb infinitives in position 4:

Der Mann hätte seinem kleinen Baby ein Lied singen wollen, aber …

Here, if we alter the sentence, we can have a past participle in position 4:

Der Mann hat seinem kleinen Baby ein Lied gesungen.
(The man sang his little baby a song).

Finally, with more verbal changes still, this example that utilizes a separable prefix (from the infinitive “vorsingen”, which means to perform a song):

Der Mann singt seinem kleinen Baby ein Lied vor.
(The man performs a song for his little baby).

Word Order of Adverbs

The short of the story with adverbs is that you can usually insert them in front of any adjective or verb or or use them as Time Manner Place info-bits:

Examples:

The very handsome man … (the adverb ‘very’ is ‘modifying’ the adjective ‘handsome’)
The man quickly eats. (the adverb ‘quickly’ modifies the verb ‘eats’)
The man eats exclusively with his cat. (the adverb ‘exclusively’ modifies the prepositional phrase ‘with his cat’, which describes the manner in which he eats). 

In English, adverbs almost always end with -ly, which makes them easy to identify (e.g. quickly, exclusively, slowly, painfully, beautifully, etc.).

In German, many adverbs are identical to what I call ‘root adjectives’, for example:

schnell- = fast (adj., adv.)
ausreichend- = adequate (adj.), adequately (adv.)
umfassend- = extensive (adj.), extensively (adv.)
grob- = rough (adj.), roughly (adv.)

So, the adverbs would exist just so; but the adjectives would have to take declensions where the (-) is. 

Relative Pronouns Chart 

Hello everyone,

and welcome to a new chapter in our absolutely epic German language course.

And this module will be all about one of the most confusing topics of German grammar.
Which could of course be pretty much any aspect of German grammar, but for today, it is going to be

German Word Order

And if you think of German as a language that is big about rules, you’ll be VERY surprised actually at what’s going on under the surface. Because word order is NOT about rules. It’s a delicate dance of different forces and in most cases, there is not THE ONE correct answer.

So here’s what we’ll do.
First we’ll take a look at the commonly known rules for word order and we’ll explain why they suck…what their shortcomings are. Then, we’ll have a look at what German word order is really about and then, we’ll finally zero in on one core idea. An idea that explains… everything**.
(Disclaimer: word dramatized! Idea may not actually explain literally everything. No refunds!)
So are you ready to dive in and find out? Great.

Now, the term word order is actually not very precise. For example, word order could also be the order the verbs that pile up at the end in a sentence. Like here:

• Ich habe gestern ein Bier trinken können gewollt haben worden  gesein.**
  (**example dramatized, does not represent a correct German sentence.)

What I, and many others online, teachers and students alike, mean by word order is the order of boxes. Boxes? If that doesn’t ring a bell you should check out the the article on the box model (find it here). Here’s what that is in a nutshell. A sentence consists of a verb and a bunch of boxes. Each box answers one verb related question like where, when, how, why, what, who and so on. Possibly, there are some adverbs and dochs and jas cluttering the sentence but the essentials are really verbs and boxes.

• verb:               to give
• who:               I
• what:              a book
• to whom:      my horse
• where:            in the stables
• when:              today
• Why:               because… uhm.. I got no idea, actually

For the student there are two challenges. One is where to put the verb. The other is the order of the boxes. And that’s what’s commonly called word order. Now, there are some rules about that out there. Problem is… they’re like apple trees. Only that they don’t grow nice juicy apples but confusing, random exceptions. More than we can stomach.

When rules for word order fail

Probably the most famous rule for German word order is the so called TeKaMoLo-rule. TeKaMoLo is  short for the German words temporal, kausal, modal and lokal. The rule  basically says that the order of boxes in a German sentence usually is:

• Te       – ka       – mo    – lo
• when – why – how – where

Man, I hope the colors are more helpful than they are distracting :).
But anyway… here’s TeKaMoLo in action.

• Thomas ist gestern wegen seines Knies sehr langsam in den Park gelaufen.
• Because of his knee, Thomas walked into the park very slowly yesterday.

And here’s TeKaMoLo as it fails.

• Nach Berlin fahre ich nächste Woche. … place way before time
• I’ll go to Berlin next week.

• Dort steht seit 200 Jahren ein Haus.
• For 200 years, there has been a house standing there.

Now some of you might be like “Wait, the rule is only for the stuff in the middle field. So the part after the verb.” Well, fair enough. That doesn’t change much though.

• Das Haus steht dort seit 200 Jahren. … where before when
• The house has been standing there for 200 years.

• I was very angry about the meeting yesterday.
• Ich habe mich gestern sehr wegen des Meetings geärgert…. how before why

• Ich bin hier wegen Knieproblemen in Behandlung…. where before why
• I’m under medical treatment here because of knee problems.

• Der Fahrer wartet vor der Tür mit einer Tasche…. where before how
• The driver is waiting with a bag in front of the door.

All these sentences break the TeKaMoLo-rule and there are about 74261294 more examples*** , many of them in print (*** number dramatized, may not be as ma… actually never mind, it’s probably just fine). But wait, there’s more. Sometimes, following the rule can even lead to wrong results.

• That’s why I only rarely work alone there now.

That’s a normal everyday sentence. Nothing special. And using TeKaMoLo we’d get this

• Ich arbeite nur noch selten deshalb allein dort….. wrong!

And this sounds just wrong. The natural order would be this:

• Ich arbeite dort deshalb nur noch selten allein.

So… TeKaMoLo sure sounds catchy, and it’s not like it never works. But there are a LOT Of exceptions to it. Like… millions. And it’s no different for the next rule. I’ll just quote it as I found it on About.com :

The dative object will always come before the accusative object.

 Sounds like a neat rule. But as it is it would fail in probably more than half of the cases. So there’s the following amendment… again, a quote from About.com):

If the accusative object is a pronoun, it will always be before the dative object.

Here’s the rule in practice:

• Ich gebe dir das Buch.
• I give you the book.

• Ich gebe es dir.
• I give it to you.

And here are some exceptions:

• I don’t give you the book but your sister.
• Ich gebe das Buch nicht dir sondern deiner Schwester.

• Ich gebe dir das nicht.
• I don’t give you that.

• Ich habe dir einen gegeben.
• I gave you one.

In the first sentence, we have no pronoun and still the Dative comes after the Accusative. So I guess we’d need to modify the rule and add some stuff like

“It’s Dative before Accusative except if blah blah blah yada yada yada.”

I’m too lazy to type that all out. In the second and third sentence, we do have a pronoun (das, einen) and yet, it’s Dative before Accusative. In case of number 2 it would actually border on wrong to stick with the rule.

• Ich gebe das dir nicht…. wrong-ish

The problem is that das  is a demonstrative pronoun,  einen is an indefinite pronoun and the rule simply doesn’t apply to these. So we’d have  to modify the amendment  and say “personal pronoun” instead of just pronoun  and we need to know what the difference is between all these pronouns and how to tell which is… gee, I’m getting incredibly bored, just now. The whole point of this is to show you that these rules either have millions of exceptions or they need lots of additional side rules and some side rules for the side rules in order to actually be workable rules. And the reason why this is is that these rules are not part of German. They simply don’t exist.

What’s really going on

When it comes to  the order of boxes in a German sentence, there aren’t really rules. There are tendencies. Time info often comes before place, the dative object often comes before the accusative object, the subject often comes very early. But they’re not rules. The word order in a German sentence is not based on rules. It’s based on magic. Nah… kidding. The word order of a sentence is the result of different tendencies or forces pulling the boxes one way or the other. Let’s take a peek behind the scenes. Here are the parts:

• verb :                             schenken
• who :                              Thomas
• what:                              ein Wiedergutmachungskuscheltier (that would be a “Make it up to you”-stuffed animal or stuffed animal of reconciliation)
• to whom:                      Maria
• when:                             am Freitag
• where:                            in dem kleinen Park bei der Uni

So these are our parts and now all the tendencies or forces have a meeting to decide which order to put the boxes in. Subject before Object immediately starts by saying: “So, I don’t want to sound pushy but … Thomas defi-freaking-nitely has to come before Maria here! Because we have no case markers to indicate what role they have.” And the others agree. Then Short before Long speaks up: “I motion to have  and am Freitag come before the whole park-part. It’s just sooo much shorter.” They also agree that Maria should come before the animal because Dative before Accusative wants it and they  put it far to the right because it’s very connected to the verb. Finally, they talk about how to start the sentence and no one really cares but since it’s would be odd to have Thomas and Maria right next to each other, they decide to start with the subject. The result:

• Thomas hat Maria am Freitag in dem kleinen Park bei der Uni ein Wiedergutmachungskuscheltier geschenkt..
• Thomas gave Maria a reconciliatory stuffed animal on Friday in the small park next to the university.

Now, let’s assume we already know where Thomas and Maria were in that park. Then we could just say there (dort) as our where-box. That would change the conversation quite a bit. Pronoun before actual noun, who had been quiet in the other meeting,  would speak up and say that dort should come before am Freitag. Short before long would agree and so we’d get

• Thomas hat Maria dort am Freitag ein…. geschenkt.

So.. this was really just a peek and you don’t have to remember it. I just wanted to give you an impression of the dynamics and hopefully you can see that rules just can’t do that justice. It’s a dynamic of forces, and one key thing to accept about German word order is:

 There is not the one right solution !

 I know it’s a step but you have to let go of the notion of right and wrong and start to rely on intuition. Every sentence has a default word order. That’s the order we get when we just let the forces balance each other out. It’s the most natural order (for that sentence) and it has very little emphasis. But we can use a different order too. We can take a box and put it elsewhere. Sometimes this doesn’t make much of a difference but if we go against a force that is really strong in that particular sentence we create… tension. Attention. Emphasis. The more unusual a spot is for a box, the more tension is created because we’re going against the natural tendencies there are. Sometimes this tension can be so strong that we need a very very specific context as well as a proper pronunciation to justify it. In grammar jargon these examples are  called “Highly marked”. But it’s not necessarily wrong. Let’s look at an example. I’ll mark any special emphasis in blue.

• Ich gebe dir heute  das Buch. (default, very little special emphasis)
• Ich gebe dir das Buch heute.

• Heute gebe ich das Buch dir.
• Heute gebe ich dir das Buch. (almost default)

• Das Buch gebe ich dir heute.
• Das Buch gebe ich heute dir.

• Dir gebe ich heute das Buch.
• Dir gebe ich das Buch heute.

Hey, remember when we had that rule that the dative come before the accusative?  But wait there’s more.

• Dir gebe das Buch heute ICH. <uber-Emphasis
• Das Buch gebe dir heute ICH.<-mega-emphasis
• ((Heute gebe das Buch dir ich. ))
• ((Das Buch gebe heute dir ich. ))

Of all these examples only the last two sound wrong. And why? Well, think of it this way, we gone against pretty much all the forces that there are and there’s just  too much tension now. It hurts. A bit like Yoga. Bending and stretching your limbs can be nice. It’s physically demanding, may even hurt a bit but it also makes you feel your body, feel more alive and stuff. But over-bending … that’s not fun anymore. So, now you’re probably like “My god how on earth are we supposed to learn that???” But it’s not going to be as confusing as it sounds. We’ll see that there’s actually a lot of common sense involved. “But learning all these forces and how they interact and where they pull which box when… that doesn’t sound easy.” Well, no it doesn’t. It’s actually impossible. But the good news is this:  The various forces or tendencies actually don’t really matter because they’re just expressions of one fundamental underlying idea. And that idea has to do … with the head.

Head final

Head final is a linguistic term and it basically describes that the main thing comes after all the specifics.

• a hot, tasty coffee

This is the perfect example for a head-final phrase. The main info, the head, is coffee and the specifics come before it. The object is coffee. That’s the head. And all the describing words come before it. The opposite of head final is … head initial. I think head-first sounds cooler though, so we’ll just use that. Anyway, and example for head-first would be how the Romance languages treat (most) of the adjectives.

• un café chaud et delicieux

The main thing, the head, comes first and the specifics come after. Here’s another example, this time without adjectives.

• der Sicherheitschef
• the chief of security.

You probably guessed it. The German compound nouns follow the head-final structure while the English version (in this case) is head-first. So that’s the idea of a head and it also works for whole sentences where the head is … the verb. Hold on someone’s at the do.. oh wait, it was just a bell ringing ;). Now, most languages do use both ideas in their grammar somewhere, but still they usually lean toward one of the two paradigms. And German… well it is marbled with head-final structure You can see it in the compounds, the adjectives and most important of all… the verbs

• Dünndarmpassagenuntersuchung
• small bowel follow-through examination

• Die bei Star Bucks arbeitende, schöne Frau hat mir eine Latte gemacht. (*ahem)
• The beautiful woman working at Star Bucks made me a latte.

• I promise, that I’ll give you the book tomorrow.
• Ich verspreche, dass ich dir morgen das Buch gebe.

• Ich habe dir das Buch gestern in der Uni gegeben.
• I gave  you the book yesterday at school.

Sure, there’s examples where the real verb is in position 2.
As I said, it’s rarely that strict. But at it’s heart German is head-final.
It even has it tattooed on its butt. “Head final forever” it reads, with hearts and flowers and humming birds, it’s quite cheesy. I’ll try to sneak a picture of German’s butt next time we go to sauna.

So… German is a languages that is used to boring us with all kinds of specifics before it gets to the main thing.
But before we get to talking about how that can help us clear up word order once and for all let’s … wait a week :). This is it for today. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:  rules about word order suck, there’s no right or wrong, just normal and not normal, and German saves the best for last. If you have any questions or suggestions just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.

If you want to get to part 2 right away click here…

German Word Order – Part 2

So you have taken some German grammar lessons online, learned your German vocabulary and can decline articles and pronouns and conjugate verbs. Now all that’s left is stringing everything together into understandable sentences.

But how can you learn to navigate the complicated word order in German?

As it is in English, so it is when speaking German: if the order of the words is too wrong, the meaning of the sentence is lost and all you get is gibberish.

Find out more about learning German online.

How are German sentences structured?

Surely if, when learning German, you stick to a simple Subject + Verb + Object sentence, people will understand what you mean, even if it’s not 100% perfect German grammar?

Yes and no. You will probably have trouble balancing vocabulary and grammar in any case, and even an advanced German scholar will sometimes get his cases wrong. And that’s where it gets a little tricky. If you have to choose (and when you are just starting to learn a foreign language, you will), it’s easier to remember word order once than the proper gender of hundreds of words. Get their placement right in the sentence, and most Germans might not even hear that you used the wrong gender or case.

In some cases, word order determines the meaning of a sentence. This is especially true of questions — think of the difference in meaning between the English sentences:

This is a fairytale.

Is this a fairytale?

All the words remain the same, but a change in word order makes the second one into a question, while the first is an assertion.

Also, using a participle right after an auxiliary verb (see further below) is sure to out you as an «Ausländer»! Place your words correctly in a sentence and your German acquaintances are sure to be impressed.

What is the correct sequence of word order in a sentence?

Good news for English speakers! In German grammar, the basic sentence structure in a normal main clause is refreshingly like English:

Subject + Verb + Object
«Die Ritterin tötet einen Drachen.»
The female knight kills a dragon.

Also similar to English, the indirect object in German generally comes before the direct object. Where English would say:

The squire gave the (female) knight a lance, German says:
Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object
Der Knappe gibt der Ritterin eine Lanze.

Learn how German and English contrast here.

The Placement of Nouns in German Sentences

This said, the existence of cases in the German language makes word order a bit more fluent than in English, which has confused more than one student of German. For, no matter the word order, the cases will still tell you the noun’s role in the sentence. Generally, this means that a noun can be brought to the beginning of the sentence to emphasise its importance.

Der Knappe gibt der Ritterin eine Lanze.
The squire gives the female knight a lance.
Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object

Eine Lanze gab der Knappe der Ritterin.
A lance is what the squire gave the knight.
Direct Object + Verb + Subject + Indirect Object

Der Ritterin gab der Knappe eine Lanze.
The knight was the one to whom the squire gave the lance.
Indirect Object + Verb + Subject + Direct Object

English sometimes does this, too — in poetry («dark was the night…»). But as you can see from the English translations, English often needs to add a word or two for it to work — you couldn’t say: «The lance gave the squire». You might, of course, say: «The lance the squire gave to noble knight», or «To noble knight the squire a lance did give» — but these are all rather uncommon phrases in modern English speech, and we don’t recommend using them in casual conversation!

How do you arrange pronouns in German?

However, in German sentence structure, things are slightly different with personal pronouns.

If ONLY the indirect (dative) object is a pronoun, the word order remains the same:

Er gibt ihr die Lanze.
Subject + Verb + Indirect Object (pronoun) + Direct Object (noun)
He gives the lance to her.

As you can see, the German word order is slightly different than in English sentences having a pronoun as an indirect object!

However, the accusative pronoun comes before the dative object, even if both are pronouns:

Er gibt sie der Ritterin.
Subject + Direct Object (Pronoun) + Indirect Object (noun)
He gives it to the knight.

Er gibt sie ihr.
Subject + Direct Object (pronoun) + Indirect Object (pronoun)
He gives it to her.

The Place of the Verb in German Main Clauses

You will notice that putting an object in first place does not change the place of the verb in a German sentence. Instead, the subject is shunted to a place behind the verb, leaving the verb always in second place.

Compound Verbs: identifying the place of the auxiliary verbs and the participle

Many German verb tenses rely on the formula:

auxiliary verb (sein or haben) + infinitive or participle

This is similar to several English tenses, such as the continuous tenses, for example (I went vs. I was going).

However, whereas your English lessons at school will have taught you to keep the parts of an English verb together (with the occasional exception of adverbs), German verbs are not as tightly knit. Even in a simple sentence, a German verb can and must be split:

Der Drache hat geschlafen.

The dragon was sleeping.

This subject and verb phrase is simple. However, once we start adding objects, it’s important to remember that while the auxiliary verb remains in second place, the second part of the verb (whether it be an infinitive or a participle) will go to the end of the sentence, no matter what:

Der Ritter hat den Drachen geweckt.

The knight woke the dragon.

Der Ritter hat den Drachen mit einer Tasse Kaffee geweckt.

The knight woke the dragon with a cup of coffee.

Der Ritter hat den Drachen zum Kämpfen um acht Uhr mit einer Tasse Kaffee geweckt.

The knight woke the dragon to fight at eight o’clock with a cup of coffee.

And so on.

This rule applies to regular verbs, irregular verbs, verbs in the past, present or future tense, verbs in the active or in the passive voice — as soon as you have an auxiliary verb, the participle goes to the end of the sentence.

In a verb tense with several auxiliary verbs, the second auxiliary verb goes to the end of the sentence AFTER the participle:

Ich bin getötet worden.

I was killed.

Ich bin von einem Ritter mit einer Lanze getötet worden.

I was killed by a knight with a lance.

The placement of the German verb is one of the most difficult aspects of word order for someone who speaks the English language as their mother tongue. It often makes, not just speaking, but also understanding German difficult. Remember: the rest of the verb is coming! Just wait for it…

Find German lessons to find out more about verb placement.

Where do adverbs go in German?

Once you introduce adverbs, the cosy little place beside the verb becomes even more coveted. In sentences with only direct objects, the adverb always comes directly after the verb:

Subject + Verb + Adverb Direct Object

Der Knappe reicht schnell die Lanze.
The squire quickly hands over the lance.

BUT it comes AFTER the Indirect Object:

Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Adverb + Direct Object

Der Knappe reicht der Ritterin schnell die Lanze.
The squire quickly hands the lance to the knight.

AND it comes AFTER any objects if they are pronouns.
However, the word order remains the same if only the dative (indirect object) is a pronoun:

Der Knappe reicht ihr schnell die Lanze.
The squire quickly hands her the lance.

Subject + Verb + Indirect Object (pronoun) + Adverb + Direct Object

If only the accusative (direct) object is a pronoun, it follows it but slips before the indirect (dative) object:

Der Knappe reicht es schnell der Ritterin.
The squire quickly hands it to the knight.

Subject + Verb + Direct Object (pronoun) + Adverb + Indirect Object

If both objects are pronouns, the adverb slips to last place:

Der Knappe reicht es ihr schnell.
The squire quickly hands it to her.

What to do if you have several adverbs in a sentence?

German generally puts them in the following order:

TIME — MANNER — PLACE

Die Ritterin gallopierte sofort mit angelegter Lanze zum Schlafort des Drachens.
Subject + Verb+ Adverb time + Adverb manner + Adverb place

The knight immediately galloped lance down to the dragon’s sleeping place.

As you can see, the same rules apply whether we are talking about a simple adverb or an adverbial phrase.

How the German Language Builds Subordinate Clauses

In the German language, as in English, if a sentence is made up of two clauses, these are often linked by conjunctions.

If both sentences can stand alone, they are both main clauses and the conjunctions linking them are called coordinating conjunctions (such as “und”, “oder” and «dann»). The word order of either clause is not influenced by the existence of the conjunction; it is treated as though it weren’t there:

Ihr Pferd war schnell und ihre Lanze war scharf.
Her horse was quick and her lance was sharp.

German subordinate clauses

But if one of the sentences can’t stand on its own, it is a subordinate clause. They can be adverbial, or they can function as a direct object to the verb.

They are often introduced by a subordinating conjunction such as «weil», «ob», «wann» etc.

An adverbial clause explains something about the main clause:

Der Drache sah die Ritterin nicht kommen, weil es noch geschlafen hat.
The dragon did not see the knight coming because it was still sleeping.

In learning German, object clauses mostly come after the verbs “wissen”, “fragen” and other verbs indicating knowledge (or lack of it). They are usually introduced with «dass».

Der Drache wußte nicht, dass es bald tot sein wird.
The dragon didn’t know that it would soon be dead.

Die Ritterin erfuhr bald, dass Drachen einen leichten Schlaf haben.
The knight soon found out that dragons are light sleepers.

German subordinating conjunctions and their place in the sentence

Conjunctions for adverb clauses include:

• weil,
• obwohl,
• damit,
• trotzdem,
• dann,
• wenn and others.

Conjunctions for object clauses are:

• dass
• ob,
• wer,
• wieso,
• wieviel…

The conjunctions ALWAYS come at the beginning of the subordinate clause:

Der Drache wachte auf, WEIL er ihr Pferd wiehern hörte.
(MC) The dragon woke up (SC) BECAUSE it heard her horse whinny.

Er fragte sich, WAS dieses Geraucht macht.
(MC) It asked itself (SC) WHAT made that noise.

The Placement of Verbs in German Subordinate Clauses

As an observant student of German, you might have noticed that in ALL subordinate clauses, the verb comes at the very end. If the verb has an auxiliary, the auxiliary verb comes after the main verb:

Er hob seinen Kopf hoch, damit er sehen konnte, was sich ihm näherte.
He raised his head to see what was approaching him.

The exception is in verb cases with more than one auxiliary verb — modal verbs and verbs that take a second infinitive such as “lassen” — in the perfect and past perfect.  In such cases, the auxiliary verb sneaks up the line to just before the participle or infinitive:

Sie hätte ihr Pferd gleich umdrehen müssen.
She ought to have turned her horse around immediately.

Sie dachte, dass sie ihr Pferd gleich hätte umdrehen müssen.
She thought that she should have immediately turned her horse around.

Learn more about German Verbs in this dedicated blog

Where Does the Subordinate Clause Go in German Grammar?

While subordinate clauses usually come after the main clause, they can also come first. When you learn German, it is important to remember that they take the place of a noun or adverb, and as such, are considered part of the sentence and modifies word order in a complex sentence.
What does this mean?

It means that if you decide to put the subordinate clause first, the next thing to come in the main clause is the VERB. The subordinate clause takes up the first position in the sentence, so the verb comes in second, and THEN the subject.

In English, subordinate clauses at the beginning of a sentence don’t affect word order in the main clause.

Weil sie so schnell reitete, wusste die Ritterin nicht, ob sie noch rechtzeitig bremsen kann.
(SC1)Because she was going so fast, (MC) the knight didn’t know (SC2)if she would be able to brake.

Here we have two subordinate clauses. The first was shifted to the beginning of the sentence, so in the main clause the verb comes before the subject. The second is in its usual place after the main clause, and everything stays the same.

Find your German language course in London.

Use the Imperative in a German Sentence

The imperative is used to give an order or instructions; it is one of the few verb tenses that is only conjugated in the second person (singular and plural) and the first person plural. In German grammar, the imperative is also conjugated in the third person plural — though purely as the formal version of the second person, rather than a true third person.

In German imperative sentences, the verb comes first — as indeed, it does in English grammar:

“Halte dich fest!”
Hang on!

“Töte den Drachen!”
Kill the dragon!

Learn How To Ask a Question in German

There are two types of questions:

• questions that need a question word and
• questions that can be answered yes or no.

Sentence Structure With German Question Words

How do questions with question words work?

Question words are used whenever sentences need to be clarified. The answer to a question using a question word is usually an adverb or adverb clause within the answer:

When will the knight arrive?

She will arrive at dawn. (Adverb of time)

How does the knight save herself?

She saves herself by spraying hot sauce into the dragon’s nose. (Adverb of means)

Why does she have hot sauce in her saddlebags?

The knight packed hot sauce because she just came from a chilli cook-out. (Adverb of reason)

Where will she go afterwards?

She’ll go to Disneyland! (Adverb of place)

The only exception is the question word «who» (in German «wer»), where the answer is the predicate of a phrase with «to be» («sein»):

Who is this mysterious knight?

She is Joan of Arc’s great-grandniece.

German question words

In the German language, question words always come at the beginning of the question, and are followed by the verb:

Wie rettet die Ritterin sich?
How does the knight save herself?

In this, German is once again close to English, where a question word is followed by the verb: How are you? Where does this go? How much does this cost?

Some of the most common German question words are:

English word	German translation	Does it need to be declined?
Who?	Wer?	Yes — it’s a pronoun, so you should decline it to suit its role in the sentence: nominative: Wer accusative: Wen genetive: Wem dative: Wessen Wer is used for feminine and masculine.
What?	Was?	no
When?	Wann?	no
Where?	Wo?	no
Why?	Warum?	no
How?	Wie?	no
How much?	Wieviel?	no
How many?	Wie viele?	«viele» should agree with the noun it determines.
How old?	Wie alt?	no
At what time?	Um wieviel Uhr?	no

Questions with auxiliary verbs:

As usual, the auxiliary verb is in second place, with the participle coming at the end of the sentence:

Was kann sie tun?
What can she do?

Wie hat sie sich gerettet?

How did she save herself?

How To Build Yes/No Questions in German

English generally needs to use “do” to ask a yes or no question (Do you want the last piece of cake? Do you tango?) or «will» for actions taking place in the future (Will Manchester United win the next game? Will I ever understand German word order?).

However, you will be happy to learn that German does not. In fact, you can take any perfectly normal sentence and simply flip the verb to first position to make it into a question:

Der Drache schnappt zu. -> Schnappt der Drache zu?
The dragon snaps his jaws. -> Does the dragon snap his jaws?

And, of course, two-part verbs remain much the same, with the participle at the end:

Sie kann sich retten. -> Kann sie sich retten?
She can save herself. -> Can she save herself?

Der Knappe rettet sie in letzter Minute. -> Rettet der Knappe sie in letzter Minute?
The squire saves her at the last minute. -> Will the squire save her at the last minute?

As you can see, German sentence structure is similar to English in many instances — making it all the more important that you learn and remember those cases where it isn’t! Sometimes, it is more flexible — long live German cases! — but in others, it is more rigid and inflexible. Don’t get hung up on those that seem illogical to you — all languages have their oddities, and German is no exception! Yell at your textbook, then accept it, learn it and move on.

The best way to learn German sentence structure is to see it and hear it used constantly — so look for those German books, blogs, podcasts, audiobooks and movies to make German sentences a part of your daily life. And the best way to practice it is to speak — find a language buddy, look for a German language tutor or — why not? — go to Germany for a holiday!

With these rules, you should soon have no trouble crafting credible German sentences. And fight dragons, too.

Discover the best books and resources for learning German at all levels.

Unit 1: Basics

The various forms of the articles, both definite and indefinite, are important indicators of the function a noun plays in a given sentence. Consider that in English we use only one form for all cases (“a”, “an”, “the”). This allows German to have a more flexible word order (syntax) than English. In English we usually begin sentences with the subject, e.g. “The dog has the ball,” and that English word-order rule is necessary for us to understand that “the dog” is the subject and “the ball” is what is being hit.

However, in German, there is no expectation at all that the subject must come first (although it often does). These two German sentences share the same meaning:

Der Hund hat den Ball.
Den Ball hat der Hund.

The reader (and listener) does notice the word order, but first pays attention to the articles in order to understand the sentence. In this case the article der for Hund indicates that der Hund must be the subject, and likewise the article den for Ball indicates that den Ball must be the direct object. Changing the word order in English fundamentally changes the meaning, but not so in German.

Take another example: “Erst die Frau, dann den Mann beißt der böse Hund.” If you ignore the case signals given to you by the definite articles and rely on standard English word order, then you come up with the amusingly ridiculous meaning: “First the woman, then the man bites the bad dog.” In fact the sentence means “The bad dog bites the woman first, then the man.”

Side note: A subtle difference in emphasis is expressed between the two variants of the first example above:

Der Hund hat den Ball.
The dog has the ball. [without a particular emphasis]

Den Ball hat der Hund.
The ball is what the dog has.
[or:] The dog has the ball.
[or:] The dog has this ball.

Any of those four translations could be acceptable for the above two German sentences, given no further context, but once you begin working with longer passages that provide more context, your sensitivity to differences like this can help you make better sense of a text.

Verb in Second Position

In German, the main verb in a statement is always in second position, no matter how we begin the sentence: Morgen früh lande ich in Frankfurt (Tomorrow morning I will land in Frankfurt).

This absolute rule becomes a very powerful tool for you once you begin encountering longer sentences. Practice the skill of marking up German sentences you encounter to recognize:

1. the part before the verb, which therefore must be a single unit of meaning,
2. the verb, which – also usefully for you – will always be a verb form conjugated to match the sentence subject, and
3. the part after the verb, which may include several units of meaning.

Yes / No Questions

Yes / no questions always begin with the verb:

Sind Sie gesund? (Are you healthy?)

Remember that sometimes English uses the verb “do”:

Hat er Fieber? (Does he have a fever?)
Hatte er Fieber? (Did he have a fever?)

English also complicates matters by using “do” to negate simple statements and questions. German’s straightforward “Haben Sie keine Schuhe?” is expressed in English as “Do you not have any shoes?” or “Don’t you have any shoes?” or “Do you have no shoes?”

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Sentence Structure in German

The word order in German is rather strict. We’ll explain the type of components that a sentence has in detail and how they are organized.
The parts of a sentence in German to have in mind are:

• The subject
• The verb
• Particles that occupy position 0 (coordinate conjunctions and W-words)
• Objects: Accusative and Dative
• Complements
• The particle nicht

The subject

Typical subject placement. Position 1

The subject usually is in [POSITION 1] in the sentence:

Ich habe einen Hund
I have a dog

Subject inversion. Position 3

To emphasize a complement or an object, it can be placed in [POSITION 1], which makes the subject move to [POSITION 3]:

Einen Hund habe ich
I have a dog

This complement can be even a subordinate clause:

Während meiner Kindheit war ich sehr zufrieden
During my youth, I was very happy

Interrogation. Subject in position 2

With interrogative sentences, the verb takes [POSITION 1] which is why it moves the subject to [POSITION 2]

Hast du einen Hund?
Do you have a dog?

Original imperative forms. There is no subject

The 2nd person singular and plural of the imperative do not have a subject.

Komm jetzt her

Come here now

Person	Conjugation	Meaning
2nd person singular	komm	come
2nd person plural	komm — t	come

Forms added to the imperative. Subject in position 2

In forms added to the imperative, the verb and the subject are organized like in the interrogative sentences:

Trinken wir noch ein Bier
Let’s drink one more beer

Person	Conjugation	Meaning
1st person plural	trinken wir	let’s drink
Polite form	trinken Sie	drink

The verb

Typical placement of the conjugated verb in position 2

If there is just one verb, it is placed in [POSITION 2]

Ich bin 30 Jahre alt

I am 30 years old

If there are several verbs, the conjugated verb is placed in [POSITION 2] and the unconjugated one (an infinitive or a participle) in the [LAST POSITION] of the sentence.

Ich möchte Deutsch lernen
I want to learn German

Conjugated verb with interrogation and the imperative in position 1

In interrogative sentences, the conjugated verb takes [POSITION 1] and, if there is an unconjugated one, it takes the [LAST POSITION]

Haben Sie Deutsch in der Schule gelernt?
Did you study German at school? (formal)

Komm her!

Come here!

Conjugated verb in the last position in subordinate clauses or in relative clauses

In subordinate clauses or relative clauses, the conjugated verb is placed in the [LAST POSITION], moving the unconjugated verb (infinitive or participle) to the [SECOND TO LAST POSITION].

Subordinate clauses

Ich glaube nicht, dass du heute kommen darfst
I don’t think that you may come today

«Darfst» is the conjugated verb [LAST POSITION] and «kommen» is the unconjugated verb [SECOND TO LAST POSITION].

The subordinate conjunctions are those which make the conjugated verb go to the end of the sentence and are the following:

als (when), bevor (before), bis (until), dass (that), damit (so that), ob (if), obwohl (despite), seit (since), sobald (as soon as), sofern (as long as), soweit (as far as), sowie (as soon as), während (while), weil (because), wenn (if), wie (how), wo (where)

Relative clauses

Das ist das Mädchen, das ich in der Schule gesehen habe

This is the girl that I saw at school

«Habe» is the conjugate verb [LAST POSITION] and «gesehen» is the unconjugated verb (second to last position).

Particles that occupy position zero (particles that have no influence)

«Particles of position 0» means that they do not influence the order of the sentence.

Conjunctions

There are some conjunctions that do not take a grammatical position in the sentence.

Let’s look at an example:

Ich bin müde denn ich habe wenig geschlafen

I am tired because I slept little

Let’s analyse the clause in yellow:

POSITION 0	POSITION 1	POSITION 2		LAST POSITION
Coordinate conjunction	Subject	Conjugated verb	Complements	Unconjugated Verb
denn	ich	habe	wenig	geschlafen

The following conjunctions take position 0 in the sentence:

• aber
• beziehungsweise
• denn
• oder
• sondern
• und

Interrogative particles

Interrogative particles take position 0. Therefore, the verb takes position 1 and the subject takes position 2:

Wie alt bist du?

How old are you?

The following particles do not take a position in the sentence:

Pronouns	Adverbs
Wer Was Welcher	Wann Warum Wie	Wie Wie alt Wie viel Wie lange Wie oft Wie teuer Wie weit	Wo Woran Worauf Woraus Wobei Wogegen Worin Womit Worüber Worum Wozu Wohin Woher

Objects

Objects are organized in the following order:

• Accusative pronouns (mich, dich, ihn, sie, es, uns, euch)
• Dative pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr, ihm, uns, euch, ihnen)
• Dative object (z.B.: meiner Mutter)
• Accusative object (z.B. einen Brief)

Let’s see some examples to get a clearer idea of this:

DATIVE OBJECT + ACCUSATIVE OBJECT

Ich schicke meiner Mutter einen Brief

I am sending a letter my mother

DATIVE PRONOUN + ACCUSATIVE OBJECT

Ich schicke ihr einen Brief

I am sending a letter to her

ACCUSATIVE PRONOUN + DATIVE OBJECT

Ich schicke ihn meiner Mutter

I am sending it to my mother

ACCUSATIVE PRONOUN + DATIVE PRONOUN

Ich schicke ihn ihr

I am sending it to her

Order of complements: TEKAMOLO

Complements are placed between the conjugated verb and the unconjugated verb:

Subject	Conjugated Verb	Complements	Accusative Object	Unconjugated Verb
Herr Meier	hat	gestern aus Liebe im Geheimen in München	Blumen	gekauft

Out of love, Mister Meier secretly bought flowers in Munich yesterday

Complements are organized amongst themselves by following the mnemonic rule TEKAMOLO:

1. Temporal (TE)
2. Causal (KA)
3. Modal (MO)
4. Locative (LO)

Let’s see an example:

Temporal	Kausal	Modal	Lokal
gestern	aus Liebe	im Geheimen	in München

The particle «nicht»

As we’ve seen in German negation, the adverb «nicht» is the most common type of negation. By placing «nicht» in a different position, the meaning can change.

Nicht negating the verb

It makes the verb of the sentence negative when placed right before the unconjugated verb (if there is one) or at the end of the sentence:

Ich möchte nicht essen

I don’t want to eat

Ich esse nicht

I don’t eat

«Nicht» negating a complement

When placed before any complement, it negates the complement

Ich möchte nicht jeden Tag Nudeln essen

I don’t want to eat pasta every day (every day is negated)

Ich möchte nicht zu spät essen

I don’t want to eat so late (so late is what is negated)

Wortstellung (Word Order)

Summary

1. Word order in German is more flexible than in English. In particular, sentences need not begin with the subject (see “inverted word order” below). There are strict rules determining the position of the verb, and there are a few other rules to bear in mind, but in general once you have put the verb(s) in the right place and chosen between “subject first” and “inverted” word order, there will often be a number of acceptable ways for you to arrange the rest of the sentence.

2. The main rules for verb position are:

• In general, the verb should be in position 2
• The coordinating conjunctions und, aber, oder, denn & sondern occupy position 0 ==> you will generally want e.g. “und”; then something in position one; then the verb.
• If the verb is in two parts, the conjugated part goes in position two, and the “generic part” (infinitive or past participle) goes at the end of the clause.
• After a subordinating conjunction (dass, weil, wenn, als, ob…) and in a relative clause, the verb comes at the end.
• After a subordinate clause, the subsequent main clause begins with the verb.
• Infinitives with or without “zu” always come at the end of the clause.

3. A main clause may start with almost any sentence element other than the verb (except in questions). If it does not start with the subject, then the subject will come right after the verb. This is called inverted word order. It is good style in German to take advantage of this flexibility: a text in which every clause begins with the subject sounds unsophisticated and mechanical. Inverted word order is not possible in subordinate clauses. There, the subject will always come right at the beginning, immediately after the initial subordinating conjunction, relative pronoun or question word.

4. You should learn the coordinating, two-part, and subordinating conjunctions. These are essential for expressing all but the simplest ideas, and crucial to understanding German sentences.

5. Expressions of time generally precede expressions of manner, which generally precede expressions of place: “time/manner/place.”

6.Two main rules govern the position of nouns and pronouns in the sentence:

• Accusative and dative pronouns generally come “as soon as possible” (ASAP) after the subject, both in main clauses and in subordinate clauses.
• In addition,

Accusative pronouns precede…

… Dative nouns and pronouns, which precede…

… Accusative nouns

7. In this context, you should review the information on negation and the position of “nicht.”

Practice Exercises

Word Order (in general)

• Salz bitte Pay attention to what the sentences mean, so that you’ll get the joke 🙂 Das ist der Witz des Tages vom 30.8.2002.

Verb Position

• Die Stasi hilft This one’s very simple. Pay attention to what the sentences mean, so that you’ll get the joke 🙂 Das ist der Witz des Tages vom 10.8.2002.
• Der kluge Hund Slightly more difficult. Pay attention to what the sentences mean, so that you’ll get the joke 🙂 Das ist der Witz des Tages vom 5.8.2002.

Conjunctions

• Drill 1 Use this to practice which conjunctions are coordinating and which are subordinating, and to familiarize yourself further with their meanings, which are included with each question.
• Drill 2 Use this to practice the meanings of the conjunctions. Click on the “weiter” button to move between the items (numbered from 2 to 2h). You can keep clicking “weiter” and start again from the beginning until you feel like you’ve mastered the meanings of the conjunctions.
• Was ist logisch? Practice the meanings of the conjunctions by choosing logical completions to various sentence beginnings.

Wortstellung mit Konjunktion Choose the correct word order for the descriptions of the photos in this exercise.

nicht/kein

• Dumme Fragen Antworten Sie “Nein” auf die dummen Fragen, die der Computer Ihnen stellt!

Practice Exercises on Other Sites

• Als/Ob/Wenn/Wann Fill in the correct conjunctions in a series of statements. This exercise, compiled by Dr. Olaf Böhlke at Creighton University, includes informative hints for each item (click on the question mark icons).

Verb Position

1. Fundamentally, the verb goes in position TWO. Note that “second position” does not necessarily mean “second word”! Note also that initial elements are not set off by a comma in German:

Im Sommer (1) habe (2) ich am Wochenende viel Zeit.	In the summer, I have lots of time on the weekend.
Oft (1) mache (2) ich dann spontan eine Reise oder ein Soufflet.	Often then (i.e. when I have time in the summer), I’ll spontaneously go on a trip or make a soufflet.
Heute (1) reise (2) ich nach Ulm	Today, I am travelling to Ulm.
Exception: ja, nein, and doch: Ja/Nein/Doch, ich (1) reise (2) nach Ulm	Yes/No/Oh yes, I’m travelling to Ulm.

Note that coordinating conjunctions (und, denn, sondern, aber, oder) occupy position 0 [but, after und, the subject can often be omitted because it is understood, so the verb often follows it immediately]:

Gutenberg erfand [=invented] den Buchdruck,(0) und ((1) er) (2) druckte [=printed] eine 42zeilige [=42-line] Bibel.	Gutenberg invented printing, and (he) printed a 42-line bible.
Ich habe nichts erfunden, (0) aber (1) ich (2) lese gern Comics.	I haven’t invented anything, but I like to read comics.
Ich bin schön, (0) und (1) du (2) bist hässlich.	I’m attractive and you’re ugly.
Wir haben kein Geld, (0) aber (1) wir (2) sind glücklich.	We don’t have any money, but we’re happy.

2. If the verb is split into two (or more) parts, the conjugated part (i.e. the part that has an ending which agrees with the subject) goes in position two, and the “generic” part (infinitives, past participles, separable prefixes) goes to the very end of the clause. This also applies to nouns that are considered to belong to the verb (such as “Tennis” in “Tennis spielen”)

modal + infinitive: Ich muß mit der Gummiente [=rubber duckie] spielen.

haben/sein + past participle (Perfect or past perfect tense): Ich habe zu viel Eisbein [=pork knuckles] gegessen.

separable prefixes: Wir sehen bei Boris Becker zu Hause [=at BB’s house] fern.

passive: Das Ei wird viereinhalb Minuten lang gekocht.

nouns that are considered to belong to the verb: Meine Freunde spielen gern jeden Tag drei Stunden Tennis.

future; subjunctive II with würde; etc….

3a. In a subordinate/dependent clause, the conjugated verb comes at the end. If the verb is in two parts, the conjugated verb follows the generic part of the verb (separable verbs get reunited at the end of the sentence and have little parties to celebrate, with very tiny little cakes. They watch movies on tiny TVs and eat microscopic bits of popcorn.).

The main types of dependent clauses:

• clauses introduced by subordinating conjunctions: dass, weil, wenn, da, ob, bis, nachdem, bevor, als…

Ich habe gehört, dass David Hasselhoff ein Brusttoupee trägt.	I’ve heard that David Hasselhoff wears a chest toupee.
Er hat Angst, weil die Kinder von 98 Degrees es stehlen wollen.	He’s afraid because the kids from 98 Degrees want to steal it.

• relative clauses:

Das ist die Frau, mit der ich auf dem Brandenburger Tor getanzt habe.	That’s the woman with whom I danced on the Brandenburg Gate.
Die Euphorie, die wir damals gefühlt haben, werden wir nie vergessen.	We’ll never forget the euphoria (which) we felt back then.

• indirect questions (these contain a question word [wer/wo/was/warum/ob (=whether)…]) but no question mark:

Ich wüßte gern, wo mein Skorpion ist.	I would like to know where my scorpion is.
Es interessiert niemanden, warum Barney verbrannt ist.	No one is interested (in knowing) why Barney burned.
Niemand kann mir sagen, ob “leichtgläubig” im Wörterbuch steht.	No one can tell me if “gullible” is in the dictionary.

• infinitive clauses. In the following examples, the infinitive clauses are in italics. Note that only in the first example does the German infinitive clause also translate into an infinitive clause in English:

Hast du Zeit, meine Hühneraugen [=corns] mit einem Bimsstein [=pumice stone] zu reiben?	Do you have time to pumice my corns?
Ich habe keine Lust, dir mit deinen Füßen zu helfen.	I don’t feel like helping you with your feet.
Du solltest es tun, ohne so viel zu meckern.	You should do it without grousing so much.

3b. If a sentence begins with a dependent clause, that clause is considered to occupy the first position, the verb follows immediately, and the subject comes after the verb (inverted word order). Thus, the verb ending the initial dependent clause and the verb beginning the subsequent main clause “meet” at the comma between the two clauses, as you can see in the following examples:

Weil ich müde bin, mache ich viele Fehler.	Because I’m tired, I’m making lots of mistakes.
Dass du keine Zeit hast, macht mich sehr traurig.	That you don’t have any time makes me very sad.

3c. In general, the verb follows in position two after a coordinating conjunction [und, denn, sondern, aber, oder]. In fact, however, the rule is that after a coordinating conjunction the sentence continues with the same word order that the previous clause had. Thus if the previous clause was a dependent clause, the verb will stay at the end in the und/denn/sondern/aber/oder clause.

Wir tanzen, weil wir froh sind und die Musik schön ist.	We’re dancing because we’re happy and because the music is good.
Ich habe John Travoltas Anzug aus Saturday Night Fever gekauft, obwohl ich kein Geld habe und der Anzug sehr teuer ist.	I bought John Travolta’s suit from Saturday Night Fever, even though I don’t have any money and the suit is very expensive.

Inverted Word Order

German sentences need not start with the subject, since the case system helps to differentiate the sentence subject from the direct, indirect and genitive objects. When this happens, inverted word order is used: the subject follows the verb. The following are equivalent:

Wir fahren heute nach Köln.	Heute fahren wir nach Köln.
Wir kaufen in der Stadt ein.	In der Stadt kaufen wir ein.

Inverted word order is used to emphasize parts of the sentence other than the subject.

There can be no inverted word order in dependent clauses.

In dependent clauses, the subject will always follow immediately after the initial subordinating conjunction, relative pronoun or question word (infinitive clauses don’t have a subject–that’s why they’re not mentioned here). See above for examples.

Time/Manner/Place

There are exceptions to this rule, but generally expressions of time precede expressions of manner, which precede expressions of place:

Wir fliegen im Sommer (time) mit Lufthansa (manner) nach Wien (place).	In the summer we are flying to Vienna with Lufthansa.
Wir sind immer (time) gern (manner) dort (place).	We always enjoy being there.

Notes:

Indefinite time precedes specific time:

Wir gehen immer um sechs Uhr spazieren.[“um sechs” is more specific than “immer”]

Wir gehen morgen früh um sechs Uhr spazieren.[“um sechs” is more specific than “früh,” which is more specific than “morgen”]

Manner includes anything that might answer the question “How?”

Wir gehen oft barfuß in den Park.	We always go to the park barefoot.
Dabei schneiden wir uns manchmal leider schlimm die Füße.	In doing so we unfortunately sometimes cut our feet badly.
Dann müssen wir im Krankenwagen nach Hause fahren.	Then we have to drive home in the ambulance.

Pronouns and Nouns

Accusative and dative pronouns generally come “as soon as possible” (ASAP) after the subject, both in main clauses and in subordinate clauses.

Seit einer Woche haben wir uns nicht mehr gesehen.	We haven’t seen each other for a week.
Kannst du mich heute Abend treffen?	Can you meet me tonight?
Hast du meine Telefonnummer? Ich weiß nicht mehr, ob ich sie dir gegeben habe.	Do you have my phone number? I can’t remember if I gave it to you.
Du hast sie mir vor einem Monat gegeben, aber ich habe sie in kleine Stücke gerissen.	You gave it to me a month ago, but I ripped it into little pieces.

If a pronoun is preceded by a preposition, however (für mich, bei ihm, nach ihr, unter uns…), then the preposition + pronoun combination actually indicates manner or place and so follows the time/manner/place rule described above. In this case you may find prepositions at or near the end of a sentence:

Es ist schon wieder ein Paket für dich [purpose] bei mir [place] angekommen.	Another package for you arrived at my place.
Ich komme heute Nachmittag [time] mit ihm [manner] zu dir [place].	I’m coming to your place with it [the package] this afternoon.

There is one more rule. Don’t worry if you have trouble implementing it consciously: this is something students just get used to gradually as they hear and read more German, so we will grade you leniently for a while if you get this wrong: This last rule is that:

Accusative pronouns precede…

…Dative nouns and pronouns, which precede…

…Accusative nouns

In the following examples, accusative nouns and pronouns are in italics, and dative nouns and pronouns are in bold type.

Ich gebe dem Mann das Buch.	==>Wir geben es ihm.
Wir zeigen der Frau den BMW.	==>Wir zeigen ihn ihr.
Ihr gebt mir den SPAM.
Ich gebe ihn dem Hund.

The Rules of German Sentence Structure

Common German Conjunctions

This German word order rule doesn’t just happen when the conjunction is at the beginning of the sentence. It also happens when the conjunction appears as a clause within the sentence. So, when that happens, you need to use inverted word order at the second half of the sentence. The following examples can show you how it’s done.

Negating Statements in German

In English, affirmative statements are negated by inserting the words “not” or “no”. German works in a similar manner using the words “nicht” and “kein”. For example:

• I can sing. – Ich kann singen.
• I cannot sing. – Ich kann night singen.
• I have money. – Ich habe Geld.
• I have no money. – Ich habe kein Geld.

Learn German Sentence Structure From Everyday Phrases

Understanding German sentence structure isn’t that difficult. But, you need to master forming sentences to reach German fluency. So, the best way to learn the word order rules is by seeing them in their natural habitat. Everyday phrases and expressions all include the grammar rules you just learned. And to find the list of the most useful German phrases, all you need to do is download OptiLingo.

OptiLingo has the only vocabulary list you’ll need to reach fluency. And, it also makes you speak the language. This means that you’ll build your confidence and speaking skills while you’re learning useful vocabulary. To discover the secrets to German sentence structure, download OptiLingo today!