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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.

https://storylearning.com/learn/german/german-tips/verb-position-in-german
1. Normal Word Order: The Verb
Comes Second
With a few exceptions, the verb comes second in German sentences.

Let's look at a few examples where the verb comes second. I've labelled each
element of the sentence so you can tell the verbs from the other parts of the
sentence.

2. How To Ask Questions In

German
So far, German sentences appear to share an almost identical structure to
English sentences. So far, so good right?

However, a few extra rules come into play as we start to change certain
elements.
For example, when asking a question, the verb comes first.

3. Dealing With Double Verbs

Two Verbs In A Sentence
When you have two verbs in a German sentence, you place the conjugated
verb in the second position and the unconjugated verb at the end of the
sentence.

 Note – A conjugated verb is a verb that changes to indicate the gender,

tense, number, person or other aspects of the sentence. For example, in
English, “played” is a conjugated form of the verb “to play” that
indicates past time.

Let's look at the following example.

Simplifying Separable Prefixes
Some verbs in German have a prefix attached to them. In this case, it's
usually a preposition.

A prefix is a short word attached to the beginning of a word. For example, in

English, “un” is a prefix you add to certain words to change their meaning:
“happy” => “unhappy”.

When a verb has a separable prefix, the prefix is moved to the end of the
sentence. Here's what happens with the verbs einkaufen (to shop)
and anfangen ( to begin/to start), which are both examples of verbs with
separable prefixes.
4. German Conjunctions: The 2
Types Of Conjunctions
Conjunctions are little words that you use to join two parts of a sentence
together. “And”, “because” and “so” are all examples of conjunctions in
English.

There are certain German conjunctions that require a change of word order.
Let's start with the simplest case: German conjunctions that don't affect the
word order.

#1: German Conjunctions That Don't Change The Word

Order: Coordinating Conjunctions
The German conjunctions that don't affect the word order are:

 und (and)
 denn (because)
 sondern (rather)
 aber (but)
  oder (or)

These types of conjunction are “coordinating conjunctions”. After this type of

conjunction, clauses have the same subject, verb, object word order.

#2: German Conjunctions That Change The Word Order:

Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating German conjunctions, on the other hand, are a different story.

Following subordinating conjunctions, the first verb is moved to the end of

the sentence.

Some of the most commonly-used subordinating conjunctions are:

 bis (until)
 während (during)
 als (as)
 da (because)
 weil (because)
 ob (if)
  wenn (when)
 obwohl (although, even though)
 dass (that)

Here are some examples in context so you can see what these conjunctions do
to the verbs:

The more adjectives, adverbs, and sentence modifiers you add, the longer it
can take to finally get to the verb at the end.

As Mark Twain once said:

“Wenn er aber auf der Straße der in Samt und Seide gehüllten, jetzt sehr ungeniert nach der
neusten Mode gekleideten Resräthin begegnet.”

In other words:

“But when he, upon the street, the (in-satin-and-silk-covered-now-very-unconstrained-after-the-

newest-fashioned-dressed) government counselor’s wife met.”
5. And Finally: The Verb Comes
Last
Although the primary rule is to place the verb second in German, there are
many circumstances when the verb comes last.

For example, you've already seen how subordinating conjunctions can send
verbs all the way to the end of a very long sentence.

However, there are a few other instances when the verb comes last. Let's take
a look at 2 examples: how modal verbs and relative clauses affect verb order.

Example #1: Modal Verbs

The modal verbs are “helping verbs”, meaning that you can only use them to
modify another verb, but not on their own.

Some examples are:

 müssen (must)
 können (can)
 sollen (should)
 möchten (like)
 dürfen (may)

When using a modal verb in a sentence, the second verb changes to the
infinitive form and moves to the end of the sentence.

Changing the verb to the infinitive form and moving it to the end of the
sentence might feel weird at first. But will become much easier with practice
and exposure to German.

Let's look at the following examples:

As you can see, the modal verb is always conjugated, while the second
verb takes the infinitive form.

When asking questions, the modal verb comes first.

Example #2: Relative Clauses

Relative clauses, or Nebensätze, also send verbs packing to the end of the
sentence.

Relative clauses are bits of a sentence that you can remove without changing
the whole meaning of the sentence. In English, they start with “who”,
“what”, or “that”. For example, in this sentence “the man who I saw in the
street was very tall”, the relative clause is “who I saw in the street”.

If you're dealing with multiple verbs in a sentence, the first verb will be sent
to the end of the sentence.

Let's look at a few examples.

Relative clauses come directly after the word they are modifying. The rest of
the sentence maintains the standard subject, verb, object word order.

6. German Word Order: 2 Cases Of

Inverted Sentence Structure
German word order is not set in stone. In fact, it's common to see inverted
sentence structures in the German language. Let's look at a few different
ways to write the same sentence.

Case #1: Sentences With Time Words

 Morgen (adverb) muss (modal verb) ich (subject) Wäsche
(object) waschen (second verb). (Tomorrow I have to wash the
laundry)

The same sentence can be written like this:

 Ich muss morgen Wäsche waschen.

The adverb is free to move around within a sentence. You can also move the
object of the sentence.

 Die Wäsche muss ich morgen waschen.

Regardless of the placement of the adverbs and objects, the verbs stay in the
second and last positions.

Case #2: Sentences With Prepositional Phrases

Similarly, when a prepositional phrase comes at the beginning of the
sentence, the verb comes directly afterward in the second position. A
prepositional phrase is a part of the sentence containing a preposition (words
like “in”, “on”, or “over” in English).

 Auf die neue Waschmaschine (prepositional

phrase) warten (verb) wir (subject). (We're waiting for the new
washing machine)
 In die Schule (prepositional phrase) gehen (verb) die Kinder (subject).
(The children go to school)
 Um das Gebäude (prepositional
phrase) laufen (verb) wir (subject) herum. (We're walking around the
building)

The purpose of inverting a sentence in German is to emphasise a particular

aspect of the situation. Since German word order is flexible, it's possible to
accentuate any part of the sentence you choose.
7. Time, Manner, Place
German verbs are always either in the second or last position in a sentence.
You've seen how changing word order lets you emphasise different elements
of a sentence.

You've also learned when to move verbs to the end of a sentence to make
space for prepositional phrases and temporal adverbs.

But there's one more important aspect to remember about German sentences.

When faced with various adverbs that need placement within a sentence, we
always follow the rule time, manner, place.

1. Time adverbs come first (yesterday, tomorrow etc)

2. Adverbs describing the manner in which something happens come
second (quickly, angrily etc)
3. and finally the place

Take a look at these examples:

Verb Position In German: Simplified
In most circumstances, German sentences follow the structure subject, verb,
object. Just like in English. In the image below, you'll see a quick summary
of the verb positions and what causes the changes.

German allows for flexibility, so feel free to change up your sentence

structure to emphasise particular words. Just remember, the verb must stay in
its second, or last, position. And adverbs need to follow the format time,
manner, and place.