Lerne dein Vokabel! Word order in German questionsįor questions, German sentence structure all depends on whether the question can be answered by yes or no, or not. To put more emphasis on the verb, it comes first: The order of words in German imperative sentences is somewhat different. In secondary clauses, the verb comes at the end, with any auxiliaries at the very end :Ĭonjunction + Subject + Indirect Object + Direct Object + Infinitive or Participle + Auxiliary Verb The German Imperative Voice Photo credit: susivinh via VisualHunt / CC BY-ND Sentence structure of German subordinate clauses The existence of cases in the German language makes it possible to mix up word order in a German sentence. Start taking a German language course today. Subject + Auxiliary Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object + Infinitive or Participle. In second place, no matter what else, comes the verb.Īt least, the verb comes second in main clauses, and if the verb tense takes an auxiliary verb, the auxiliary takes the second place, while the infinitive or participle comes at the end: The use of cases still makes it clear what their role in the sentence is. However, German can move any other part of speech, including adverbs, into first place, bumping the subject into third place after the verb. (*In English, the placement of the indirect object depends on whether the preposition “to” is used or not.) Subject + Verb + Indirect (dative) Object* + Direct (accusative) object Let's go How To Master German Sentence StructureĪt first, German sentence structure seems to resemble that of English. In addition, certain prepositions take specific cases, and locational prepositions take either the accusative (if there is movement) or the dative (if there is none). The accusative is used for direct objects, the dative for indirect objects. The nominative case is used for the subject and object of verbs such as “sein” (to be) and “werden” (to become). ![]() Cases in German GrammarĬases are helpful in determining as what part of speech as noun is functioning. But for the rest, there is no hope but to learn the article (masculine “der”, Feminine ”die”or neuter “das”) along with the word itself. There are some rules to establish what the gender of a noun is - words designating certain specific things (calendar words or the points of the compass, for example) or with certain specific endings will all take the same article. Just as two-gender languages such as French and Italian assign gender to inanimate objects, so too do the Germans. But while you might logically expect women and female animals to be feminine, men and male animals masculine, and anything inanimate to be neuter, this is not the case. Photo credit: amboo who? via Visual hunt / CC BY-SAĪs a forward-thinking language, German has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. What genders are there in German? German has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Of course, as English doesn’t use gender for inanimate objects and only pronouns are declined, the existence in the German language of both gender (three!) and declension (four cases!) is a bit of a challenge. There are a few exceptions in declension (”weak” masculines) and conjugation (verbs ending in “-ieren”), some prefix verbs that are separable, and there are some adjectives that get a tad wonky when they’re declined.Ī few of the other differences are outlined below. One happy difference between the English and German language is the relative derth of exceptions in German. This is less of a problem for English-speakers learning German than for German speakers wanting to learn English, as they have to learn how to use a tense which has no equivalent in their language. For example, German grammar has no continuous tenses to express an action that is still happening at the moment you are talking, but uses instead the simple present. ![]() Some verbs tenses are missing or used differently. Others are just a little bit frustrating. ![]() ![]() Some of them are relatively minor - German capitalises all nouns, not just the proper ones, and can combine them into mega-words of gargantuan proportions, such as “Schulausflugteilnahmegenehmigung” (an authorisation to take part in a school outing). When learning German, English speakers are confronted by all the differences between the two languages. Let's go Contrasting English and German Grammar
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