Word orders 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 

The main difference that sets apart German sentence structure from that of English is that German is an OV (Object-Verb) language, whereas English is a VO (verb-object) language.^[1] Additionally, German, like all Germanic languages except English, uses V2 word order, though only in independent clauses. In dependent clauses, the finite verb is placed last.

Independent clauses[edit]

Declarative sentences[edit]

Declarative sentences use V2 word order: the finite verb is preceded by one and only one constituent (unlike in English, this need not be the subject); in Germanic tradition, the position occupied by this constituent is referred to as the Vorfeld ‘prefield’. Coordinating conjunctions like und ‘and’ or aber ‘but’ precede both the prefield and the finite verb, and so do topicalised elements (similarly to the ‘that’ in English ‘That I don’t know’). The prefield is often used to convey emphasis.

Non-finite verbs as well as separable particles are placed at the end of the sentence:

In the midfield (the part of the clause between the position of the finite verb and that of the clause-final verb cluster), German word order is highly variable.
Conventional German syntax presents information within a sentence in the following order:^{[citation needed]}

• Wichtigstes (what is the most important thing of the things following?)
  1. The word «da» with the meaning «then suddenly» must take the first place. A «dann», then, does so often, but not necessarily; otherwise, the Subject will do.
  2. If the verb is most important, the unconjugated (normally second) part of the separable verb is placed here, but even then separated from the conjugated (normally first) part. If the verb is not separable or periphrastical, the infinitive will do.
• Was (what? the conjugated verb)
  1. In this case, a form of «tun» is legitimately inserted for the conjugated verb, as in Arbeiten tun wir. «Working, that’s what we do.»
• Wer (who? the subject)
• Wem (to/for whom – dative object)
• Wann (when – time)
• Warum (why – reason)
• Wie (how – manner)
• Wo (where – place)
• Wen (whom – accusative object)
• Wohin/Woher (to/from where)
• Verb, nochmal (first part of the separable verb)

Wir gehen am Freitag miteinander ins Kino. Literally,
«We go on Friday together to the movies.»^{[dubious – discuss]}

Wegen ihres Jahrestages bereiten wir unseren Eltern einen Ausflug nach München vor. Literally,
«Because of their anniversary plan we our parents a trip to Munich.»

Comparisons can be put after both parts of the verb, or before the place of its later part. So:
Er ist größer gewesen als ich. / Er war größer als ich. «He was greater than me.»
OR
Er ist größer als ich gewesen

Additionally, German often structures a sentence according to increasing news value. So:
Wir gehen am Donnerstag ins Kino. We’re going to the movies on Thursday. BUT

An welchem Tag gehen wir ins Kino?
(On) What day are we going to the movies?

Am Donnerstag gehen wir ins Kino. OR Wir gehen am Donnerstag ins Kino.
On Thursday we’re going to the movies. OR We’re going on Thursday to the movies.»

In ditransitive sentences, the di
Florian gibt mir morgen das Buch. «Florian is giving me tomorrow the book.»
BUT
Florian gibt es mir morgen. «Florian is giving it to me tomorrow.»

Inversion[edit]

By an inversion you emphasize of the sentence: an adverbial phrase, a predicative or an object, or even an inner verbal phrase. The subject phrase, at the beginning of an indicative unstressed sentence, is moved directly behind the conjugated verb, and the component to be emphasized is moved to the beginning of the sentence. The conjugated verb is always the second sentence element in indicative statements.

«Ich fliege schnell.» – «I fly fast.» – unstressed

«Schnell fliege ich.» – «I fly fast.» – stressed ‘fast’ (i.e., «Fast is how I fly.»)

«Du bist wunderschön.» – «You are lovely.» – unstressed

«Wunderschön bist du.» – «You are lovely.» – stressed ‘lovely’ (i.e., «Lovely is what you are.»)

«Ich bin gelaufen.» – «I ran.» – unstressed

«Gelaufen bin ich!» – «I ran!» – stressed ‘ran’ (i.e., «Run is what I did!»)

Interrogative Sentences[edit]

Questions are generally divided into yes-no questions and wh-questions.
Specific questions are similar to inverted statements. They begin with a question word, then there is the conjugated verb, followed by the subject (if there is one), and the rest of the sentence follows.^{[citation needed]}

Was machst du jetzt? («What are you doing now?»)

Wer geht ins Kino? («Who is going to the cinema?» – In this sentence, the interrogative pronoun wer serves as the subject)—>

Yes-No Questions[edit]

In yes-no questions, V1 (verb-first) word order is used: the finite verb occupies the first position in the sentence; this time, there is no prefield.

However, conjunctions and topicalised elements still precede the finite verb:

Wh-Questions[edit]

Wh-questions work in much the same way as they do in English. Like English, German also has Wh-movement:

Commands[edit]

For commands, the imperative mood is used. Like questions, commands use V1 word order.

In contemporary German, the imperative singular ending -e is usually omitted. The second-person-singular pronouns du ‘you (sg)’ and ihr ‘you (pl)’ are always omitted, except in highly formal or literary language:

Like in English, nouns or non-finite verb forms can sometimes be used to give commands:

Dependent Clauses[edit]

Subordinate clauses use Vfinal word order.

That-Clauses[edit]

Using dass ‘that’:

Clauses Headed by a Subordinator[edit]

Relative Clauses[edit]

Aside from their highly inflected forms, German relative pronouns are less complicated than English. There are two varieties. The more common one is based on the definite article der, die, das, but with distinctive forms in the genitive (dessen, deren) and in the dative plural (denen). Historically this is related to English that. The second, which is more literary and used for emphasis, is the relative use of welcher, welche, welches, comparable with English which. As in most Germanic languages, including Old English, both of these varieties inflect according to gender, case and number. They take their gender and number from the noun which they modify, but the case from their function in their own clause.

Das Haus, in dem ich wohne, ist sehr alt.

The house in which I live is very old.

The relative pronoun dem is neuter singular to agree with Haus, but dative because it follows a preposition in its own clause. On the same basis, it would be possible to substitute the pronoun welchem.

However, German uses the uninflecting was (‘what’) as a relative pronoun when the antecedent is alles, etwas or nichts (‘everything’, ‘something’, ‘nothing’.).

Alles, was Jack macht, gelingt ihm.

Everything that Jack does is a success.

In German, all relative clauses are marked with commas.

Alternatively, particularly in formal registers, participles (both active and passive) can be used to embed relative clauses in adjectival phrases:

Die von ihm in jenem Stil gemalten Bilder sind sehr begehrt

The pictures he painted in that style are highly sought after

Die Regierung möchte diese im letzten Jahr eher langsam wachsende Industrie weiter fördern

The government would like to further promote this industry, which has grown rather slowly over the last year

Unlike English, which only permits relatively small participle phrases in adjectival positions (typically just the participle and adverbs), and disallows the use of direct objects for active participles, German sentences of this sort can embed clauses of arbitrary complexity.

Subordinate Clauses[edit]

A subordinate clause (Nebensatz) is always incorporated in a main clause (or another subordinate clause). Any part of the main clause can be replaced by it, but some conjugated verb must remain. However, subclauses are generally moved to the end of the sentence if it can be done without inconvenience and they do not take the first place because of importance. As for word order, it differs in two things only from a main clause:

1. In general, it begins with a special word, a ‘subordinating conjunction’ or a relative pronoun, setting it into relation with the encompassing sentence.
2. The verb is, without separation, sent to the place where the first part of a separable verb would be in a main clause, i. e. at the end of the sentence.

   Ich nehme den früheren Flug, damit ich heute noch ankomme. = «I’ll take the earlier flight so that I arrive even today.»

Question words (in the following example, ‘wohin’) have the same effect as subordinating conjunctions within a sentence.

Wohin ist er gelaufen?
Niemand wusste, wohin er gelaufen ist. («Where did he run (to)? No one knew where he ran (to).»—Note that, unlike in English, a subordinate or dependent clause is always separated from the independent clause (Hauptsatz) by a comma.)

Oddities:

1. Final clauses can be replaced by an «um-zu»-infinitive, if the subject is identical; in practice, um behaves as conjunction, and the infinitive, with a zu, as conjugated verb, and the subject falls away.

   Wir haben genug Geld, um diese CD zu kaufen. = Wir haben genug Geld, damit wir diese CD kaufen. «We have enough money to/that we buy this CD.»

2. In conditional phrases, the conjunction wenn may be left out in the main clause and the verb put into its place. In this case, so replaces dann in the subordinate clause.

   Hast du genügend Geld, so (no «dann» in this case) kannst du diese CD kaufen. = Wenn du genügend Geld hast, dann kannst du diese CD kaufen. «If you have enough money, then you can buy this CD.»

3. Indirect speech may behave as subclause in relation to the main clause, but the conjunction (which would be «dass») may be left out and then its word-order is as in main clauses.

   Er sagte, er sei mit der Arbeit fertig. = Er sagte, dass er mit der Arbeit fertig sei. = «He said (that) he had finished his work.»

4. Denn, by custom translated into English as for, is in practice just an equivalent to weil «because», but it requires a main-clause word-order and may even take a semicolon instead of a comma.

   Er kommt nicht zur Arbeit, denn er ist krank. (He doesn’t come to work, for he’s ill.) = Er kommt nicht zur Arbeit, weil er krank ist. = «He doesn’t come to work because he’s ill.»

   To confuse things, in some dialects weil has the role which denn has in Standard German. However this doesn’t mean they generally neglect the subclause word order, since other conjunctions meaning the same, i. e. da «as» or even a «deswegen weil» (literally: because of that because) take ordinary subclauses even there.

5. In subordinate clauses that make use of two or more infinitives consecutively (a phenomenon known as Doppelinfinitiv («double infinitive») with two infinitives), the conjugated verb (generally haben, werden, or a modal verb), comes before (or between) the two (or more) infinitives. Perfect constructions of this type can usually be avoided altogether by using the simple past:

   Er wollte wissen, ob du es hast tun können / tun hast können. = Er wollte wissen, ob du es tun konntest. = «He wanted to know if you’ve been able to (could) do it.»

   Ich weiß, dass ich es werde tun müssen / tun werde müssen. = «I know I’m going to have to do it.»

   Sie hofft, dass sie uns es kann tun helfen / tun kann helfen. = «She hopes she can help us do it.»

Subordinate sentence structure[edit]

Just as in English, a subordinate clause may be used at the beginning or end of a complete expression, so long as it is paired with at least one independent clause. For instance, just as one could say either:

I will go with you, if I can. or If I can, I will go with you.

so you can also say in German:

Ich komme mit, wenn ich kann. or Wenn ich kann, komme ich mit.

Note, however, that in German when the independent clause comes after a subordinate clause the conjugated verb comes before the subject. This arises from the basic rule that always places the conjugated verb in a sentence in the second position, even if that puts it ahead of the sentence’s subject.

Clauses with dass[edit]

Subordinate clauses beginning with dass [thus, so, that] enable the speaker to use statements like nominal phrases or pronouns. These sentences are singular, neuter and either nominative or accusative. For example:

Dass Spinnen keine Insekten sind, ist allgemein bekannt. («It’s well known that spiders are not insects.»)

Ich weiß, dass Spinnen keine Insekten sind. – Ich weiß das. («I know that spiders are not insects – I know that.»)

Indirect questions with ob[edit]

Whereas the word dass indicates that the statement is a fact, ob starts an indirect yes/no question.

Ich weiß nicht, ob ich fliegen soll. («I don’t know whether I should fly.»)

Specific indirect question[edit]

Relative clauses[edit]

The outer nominal phrase the relative clause relates to can be any nominal phrase in any case. The clause begins with a form of the relative pronoun derived from and largely identical to the definite pronoun (der/die/das), or the interrogative pronoun (welchem/welcher/welches), the remaining words are put after it. Using the interrogative pronoun without good cause is considered typical for legalese language.

Der Mann, der/welcher seiner Frau den Hund schenkt (nominative subject) («The man who gives his wife the dog»)

Der Hund, den/welchen der Mann seiner Frau schenkt (accusative object) («The dog which the man gives his wife»)

Die Frau, der/welcher der Mann den Hund schenkt (dative object) («The woman to whom the man gives the dog»)

Der Mann, der/welcher ich bin (predicative noun) («The man I am»)

The outer nominal phrase can also be the possessor of a noun inside. The genitive case of a relative pronoun matching the outer nominal phrase in gender and number is used.

Der Mann, dessen Auto auf der Straße parkt («The man whose car is parked on the street»)

Die Person, deren Auto ich kaufe («The person whose car I am buying»)

Das Auto, dessen Fahrer ich helfe («The car whose driver I am helping»)

Die Kinder, deren Lehrer ich kenne («The children whose teacher I know»)

Prepositions/Postpositions are attached to these phrases in the relative clause if necessary.

Das Haus, in dem ich lebe («The house I live in»)

Die Person, derentwegen ich hier bin («The person I am here because of»)

Das Haus, durch dessen Tür ich gegangen bin («The house whose door I came in by»)

If the relative pronoun is identical to the definite article several identical forms may follow each other.

Der, der der Frau, der ich schon Honig gegeben hatte, Honig gab, muss mehr Honig kaufen («The man who gave honey to the woman I had already given honey to, has to buy more honey»)

Such constructions are generally avoided by using forms of welch- as relative pronouns.

Der, welcher der Frau, welcher …

or rather

Derjenige, welcher der Frau, der ich …

Otherwise, welcher is rarely used (never in the genitive), and without a difference in meaning. If the relative pronoun refers to a thing as yet unknown or a whole sentence and not a part of it, was is used instead, always equivalent here to an English «which».

Der Chef stellte einen Arbeiter ein, was diesen sehr gefreut hat. – «The manager hired a worker, which the latter was very happy about.»

From sentences such as this which is altogether correct, being a locational adverb

In dem Geschäft, wo ( or in dem) man auch Brot kaufen kann, kaufe ich Bier. – «In this shop where you also can buy bread I am buying beer.»

one may understand why colloquial usage extends this to other quasi-locational prepositional expressions

Die Zeit, wo (= in der) wir Rom besucht haben, war sehr schön. – «The time lit. where we visited Rome was really fine.» Regular «in der», literally «in which», would translate to a «when» in English.

and then, in slang, to all relative clauses:

Der Mann, wo bei Siemens arbeitet, hat an der Technischen Universität studiert. «The man where works at Siemens’s has graduated from the Technical University.»

Bavarians never use this form. Southern Germans have constructed a double form «der wo, die wo, das wo» which, however, is almost necessary in Bavarian dialect. «Wo» may here be replaced by «was», which for undiscoverable reasons seems to occur mostly in the feminine gender.

Adverbial clauses[edit]

An adverbial clause begins with a conjunction, defining its relation to the verb or nominal phrase described.

Als ich auf dem Meer segelte («When/As I was sailing on the sea»)

Some examples of conjunctions: als, während, nachdem, weil.

References[edit]

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

While there are cases in which German and English word order are identical, German word order (die Wortstellung) is generally more variable and flexible than English. A «normal» word order places the subject first, the verb second, and any other elements third, for example: «Ich sehe dich.» («I see you.») or «Er arbeitet zu Hause.» («He works at home.»).

Sentence Structure

• Simple, declarative sentences are identical in German and English: Subject, verb, other.
• The verb is always the second element in a German sentence.
• With compound verbs, the second part of the verb goes last, but the conjugated part is still second.
• German sentences are usually «time, manner, place.»
• After a subordinate clause / conjunction, the verb goes last.

Throughout this article, note that verb refers to the conjugated or finite verb, i.e., the verb that has an ending that agrees with the subject (er geht, wir geh en, du gehst, etc.). Also, «in second position» or «second place,» means the second element, not necessarily the second word. For example, in the following sentence, the subject (Der alte Mann) consists of three words and the verb (kommt) comes second, but it is the fourth word:

«Der alte Mann kommt heute nach Hause.»

Compound Verbs

With compound verbs, the second part of the verb phrase (past participle, separable prefix, infinitive) goes last, but the conjugated element is still second:

• «Der alte Mann kommt heute an.»
• «Der alte Mann ist gestern angekommen.»
• «Der alte Mann will heute nach Hause kommen.»

However, German often prefers to begin a sentence with something other than the subject, usually for emphasis or for stylistic reasons. Only one element can precede the verb, but it may consist of more than one word (e.g., «vor zwei Tagen» below). In such cases, the verb remains second and the subject must immediately follow the verb:

• «Heute kommt der alte Mann nach Hause.»
• «Vor zwei Tagen habe ich mit ihm gesprochen.»

The Verb Is Always the Second Element

No matter which element begins a German declarative sentence (a statement), the verb is always the second element. If you remember nothing else about German word order, remember this: the subject will either come first or immediately after the verb if the subject is not the first element. This is a simple, hard and fast rule. In a statement (not a question) the verb always comes second. 

This rule applies to sentences and phrases that are independent clauses. The only verb-second exception is for dependent or subordinate clauses. In subordinate clauses, the verb always comes last. (Although in today’s spoken German, this rule is often ignored.) 

One other exception to this rule: interjections, exclamations, names, certain adverbial phrases are usually set off by a comma. Here are some examples:

• «Nein, der alte Mann kommt nicht nach Hause.»
• «Maria, ich kann heute nicht kommen.»
• «Wie gesagt, das kann ich nicht machen.»

In the sentences above, the initial word or phrase (set off by a comma) comes first but does not alter the verb-second rule.

Time, Manner, and Place

Another area where German syntax may vary from that of English is the position of expressions of time (wann?), manner (wie?) and place (wo?). In English, we would say, «Erik is coming home on the train today.» English word order in such cases is place, manner, time… the exact opposite of German. In English it would sound odd to say, «Erik is coming today on the train home,» but that is precisely how German wants it said: time, manner, place. «Erik kommt heute mit der Bahn nach Hause.»

The only exception would be if you want to start the sentence with one of these elements for emphasis. Zum Beispiel: «Heute kommt Erik mit der Bahn nach Hause.» (Emphasis on «today.») But even in this case, the elements are still in the prescribed order: time («heute»), manner («mit der Bahn»), place («nach Hause»). If we start with a different element, the elements that follow remain in their usual order, as in: «Mit der Bahn kommt Erik heute nach Hause.» (Emphasis on «by train» — not by car or plane.)

German Subordinate (or Dependent) Clauses

Subordinate clauses, those parts of a sentence that cannot stand alone and are dependent on another part of the sentence, introduce more complicated word order rules.  A subordinate clause is introduced by a subordinating conjunction (dass, ob, weil, wenn ) or in the case of relative clauses, a relative pronoun (den, der, die, welche). The conjugated verb is placed at the end of a subordinate clause (“post position”). 

Here are some examples of subordinate clauses in German and English. Notice that each German subordinate clause (in bold type) is set off by a comma. Also, notice that the German word order is different from that of the English and that a subordinate clause may come first or last in a sentence.

• „Ich weiß nicht, wann er heute ankommt.” | “I don’t know when he arrives today.”
• „Als sie hinausging, bemerkte sie sofort die glühende Hitze.” | “When she went out, she immediately noticed the intense heat.”
• „Es gibt eine Umleitung, weil die Straße repariert wird.” | “There’s a detour because the road is being repaired.”
• „Das ist die Dame, die wir gestern sahen.” | “That’s the lady (that/whom) we saw yesterday.”

Some German-speakers these days ignore the verb-last rule, particularly with weil (because) and dass (that) clauses. You may hear something like «…weil ich bin müde» (because I’m tired), but it’s not grammatically correct German. One theory blames this trend on English-language influences!

Conjunction First, Verb Last

As you can see above, a German subordinate clause always starts with a subordinating conjunction and ends with the conjugated verb. It is always set off from the main clause by a comma, whether it comes before or after the main clause. The other sentence elements, such as time, manner, place, fall into the normal order. The one thing you must remember is that when a sentence starts with a subordinate clause, as in the second example above, the very first word after the comma (before the main clause) must be the verb. In the example above, the verb bemerkte was that first word (note the differences between the English and German word order in that same example).

Another type of subordinate clause is the relative clause, which is introduced by a relative pronoun (as in the previous English sentence). Both relative clauses and subordinate clauses with a conjunction have the same word order. The last example in the sentence pairs above is actually a relative clause. A relative clause explains or further identifies a person or thing in the main clause.

Subordinating Conjunctions

One important aspect of learning to deal with subordinate clauses is to be familiar with the subordinating conjunctions that introduce them. 

All of the subordinating conjunctions listed in this chart require the conjugated verb to go at the end of the clause they introduce. Another technique for learning them is to learn the ones that are NOT subordinating, since there are fewer of those. The coordinating conjunctions (with normal word order) are: aber, denn, entweder/oder (either/or),weder/noch (neither/nor), and und.

Some of the subordinating conjunctions can be confused with their second identity as prepositions (bis, seit, während), but this is usually not a big problem. The word als is also used in comparisons (größer als, bigger than), in which case it is not a subordinating conjunction. As always, you have to look at the context in which a word appears in a sentence.

• als -> as, when
• bevor -> before
• bis -> before
• da -> as, since (because)
• damit -> so that, in order that
• dass -> that
• ehe -> before (re old Eng. «ere»)
• falls -> in case
• indem -> while
• nachdem -> after
• ob -> whether, if
• obgleich -> although
• obschon -> although
• obwohl -> although
• seit/seitdem -> since (time)
• sobald -> as soon as
• sodass / so dass -> so that
• solang(e) -> as/so long as
• trotzdem -> despite the fact that
• während -> while, whereas
• weil -> because
• wenn -> if, whenever

Note: All of the interrogative words (wann, wer, wie, wo) can also be used as subordinating conjunctions.

Строгость и логичность немецкого языка диктует и правила расстановки слов в предложениях. Это означает что порядок слов строго фиксирован.

Что это значит?

В русском мы можем расставить слова в предложении как угодно. Как угодно расставить мы можем слова. Мы можем слова расставить.

В немецком же этот трюк не пройдёт: нужно знать правила и обязательно располагать часть предложения на отведённом ей месте.

Начинающим особенно сложно привыкнуть к этому. Поэтому мы написали эту статью, которая поможет соблюдать немецкий порядок слов.

Выучите те союзы, которые меняют порядок слов, и те, которые его не меняют

Есть разные союзы, которые действуют на немецкое предложение по-разному.

• «Нормальный» порядок слов: Ich werfe den Ball. — Я бросаю мяч.

Сказуемое на втором месте, подлежащее на первом.

Кстати, также очень важно запомнить, что в немецком повествовательном предложении глагол всегда на втором месте (исключая некторые ситуации, описанные ниже)

Вот те союзы, которые не меняют этот порядок: und, denn, sondern, aber и oder.

• Ich renne vorwärts und ich werfe den Ball.
• Ich kann den Ball nicht gut treten, aber ich werfe den Ball ziemlich gut.
• Entweder sagst du mir die Wahrheit, oder ich werfe dir den Ball ins Gesicht!
• Ich bin stark, denn ich werfe jeden Tag im Basketball-Training den Ball.

Как видите, порядок слов после этих союзов не изменился: на втором месте сказуемое werfe, на первом — подлежащее ich.

А вот и те союзы, которые меняют порядок слов: während, bis, als, wenn, da, weil, ob, obwohl и dass.

Мы перечислили самые популярные, есть ещё несколько. Будьте осторожны с ними: они «выгоняют» сказуемое в конец предложения, меняя порядок слов.

• Ich kann ihn nicht leiden, weil er so ein egoistischer Idiot ist. — Я не могу его терпеть, потому что он эгоистичный идиот.

Вообще-то, порядок слов должен быть таким: Er ist so ein egoistischer Idiot. Но, как вы видите, союз weil поменял этот порядок.

То же самое и с другими союзами из этого списка:

• Ich habe auch schon immer gedacht, dass er ein egoistischer Idiot ist.
• Obwohl er ein egoistischer Idiot ist, sollten wir nett zu ihm sein.

Если есть модальный глагол, то инфинтив смыслового глагола уходит в конец предложения

Вот немецкие модальные глаголы: müssen, können, sollen, möchten, wollen

Как только вы употребляете модальный глагол, вы сразу должны вспомнить, что второй глагол уйдёт в конец:

• Wir müssen ihm heute helfen. — Мы должны ему помочь.

С вопросами тоже самое: Müssen wir ihm mit seinem Umzug nochmal helfen? — Мы должны ему помочь с переездом?

Не забывайте об обратном порядке слов

Если на первом месте стоит не подлежащее, а дополнение, то вы имеете дело с обратным порядком слов. В нём нет ничего сложного, главное, не забыть, что глагол — на втором месте!

• Morgen gehen wir feiern = Wir gehen morgen feiern — Завтра мы идём праздновать.
• Gegenüber von mir sitzen zwei Deutsche = Zwei Deutsche sitzen gegenüber von mir — Напротив меня сидят два немца.

Правило TeKaMoLo

TeKaMoLo = Temporal, Kasual, Modal, Lokal — Когда? Почему? Как? Где?

Это значит, что сначала мы должны сказать, когда что-то произошло, потом рассказать, почему и как это произошло. И уже в последнюю очередь — где.

Для немцев очень важно время события, не забывайте об этом!

• Ich ging gestern gelangweilt in die Uni. — Я шёл (когда?) вчера (как?) скучая (куда/где?) в университет.

Источник: http://startdeutsch.ru/grammatika/poryadok-slov/988-poryadok-slov-v-nemetskom-yazyke-4-prostykh-pravila

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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)

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!