German sentence

structure

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

Declarative sentences …

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.
Ich sehe den Baum.
ich seh-e den
I. see. - the. . .
Baum
tree. .
'I see the tree.'

Den Baum sehe ich.

den Baum
the. . . tree. .
seh-e ich
see. - I.
'I see the tree.'

Du siehst den Fluss, und ich sehe den

Baum.
du siehst den
you. see. . the. . .
Fluss und ich
river. . and I.
seh-e den
see. . the. . .
Baum
tree. .
'You see the river, and I see the tree.'

Der König, der sah den Fluss.

der König
the. . . king. .
der sah
. . . see. .
den Fluss
the. . . river. .
 'The king, he saw the river.'

Non-finite verbs as well as separable

particles are placed at the end of the
sentence:

Der König ist an der Burg angekommen.

der König
the. . . king. .
ist an der
be. . at the. . .
Burg
castle. .
an=ge-komm-en
on= . 1-come- . 1

'The King has arrived (lit. "is on-come")

at the castle.'
Der König kam an der Burg an.
der König
the. . . king. .
kam an der
come. . at the. . .
Burg an
castle. . on
'The King arrived (lit. "on-came") on the
castle.'

Der König wird an der Burg ankommen.

der König
the. . . king. .
wird an der
will. . at the. . .
Burg an=komm-en
 castle. . on=come-
'The King will arrive (lit. "will on-come")
at the castle.'

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.

Interrogative Sentences …

Questions are generally divided into yes-

no questions and wh-questions.

Yes-No Questions …

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.

Siehst du den Baum?

siehst du den
see. . you. the. . .
Baum
tree. .
'Do you see the tree?'

However, conjunctions and topicalised

elements still precede the finite verb:

Aber hast du den Baum gesehen?

aber hast du
but have. . you.
den Baum
the. . . tree. .
ge-seh-en
. 1-see- . 1

'But have you seen the tree?'

Den Baum, hast du den gesehen?

den Baum
the. . . tree. .
hast du
have. . you.
den
. . .
ge-seh-en
. 1-see- . 1

'The tree, have you seen it?'

Wh-Questions …

Wh-questions work in much the same

way as they do in English. Like English,
German also has Wh-movement:

Welchen Baum hast du gesehen?

welchen Baum
. . . . tree. .
hast du
have. . you.
ge-seh-en
. 1-see- . 1

'What tree have you seen?'

Wohin gehen wir?

wohin geh-en wir
whither go. - we.
 'Where are we going?'

Commands …

For commands, the imperative mood is

used. Like questions, commands use V1
word order.

Reich(e) mir das Salz!

reich-(e) mir das
pass- . I. the. . .
Salz
salt. .
'Pass me the salt!'

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:

Bringe du mir das Buch!

bring-e du mir
fetch- . you. I.
das Buch
the. . . book. .
'Fetch me the book!'

Like in English, nouns or non-finite verb

forms can sometimes be used to give
commands:

Achtung Stufe!
 Achtung Stufe
attention. . step. .
'Mind the step!'

Warm anziehen nicht vergessen!

warm an=zieh-en nicht
warm. on=pull- not
vergess-en
forget-
'Don't forget to dress warmly!'

Dependent Clauses
Subordinate clauses use Vfinal word
order.

That-Clauses …
Using dass 'that':

Ich weiß, dass er hier ist.

Ich weiß dass er
I. know. . that he.
hier ist
here be. .
'I know that he's here.'

Wer hat dir erzählt, dass ich nach England

ziehen werde?
wer hat dir
who. have. . you. .
erzähl-t dass ich nach
tell. . that I. to
England zieh-en werd-e
England. move. will. .
'Who told you that I'm moving to
England?'

Dass zwei größer als eins ist, ist

selbstverständlich
dass zwei größer als eins
that two greater than one
ist, ist
be. . be. .
selbstverständlich
obvious
'That two is greater than one is obvious.'

Clauses Headed by a Subordinator …

Sie schrieb es nieder, sodass sie es nicht

vergessen würde.
sie schrieb es
she. write. . it.
nieder sodass sie es
down so.that she. it.
nicht vergess-en würd-e
not forget. will. -
'She wrote it down so that she would not
forget it.'

Wir sollten uns beeilen, damit wir

rechtzeitig ankommen.
wir soll-t-en uns
we. shall- - we.
beeil-en damit wir
hurry- in.order.that we.
rechtzeitig an=komm-en
in.time on=.come-
'We should hurry so that we arrive in
time.'

Ich helfe dir, weil ich dich mag.

ich helf-e dir
I. help. - you. .
weil ich dich
because I. you.
mag
like. .
'I help you because I like you.'

Relative Clauses …
Intonation of German restrictive relative clauses

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Relative clauses …

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 …

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
 1. Haider, Hubert (2010). The Syntax of
German. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

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