German sentence structure is somewhat more complex than that of many other European languages, but similar to Dutch, with phrases regularly inverted for both questions and subordinate phrases. The main sentence structure rule is that the conjugated verb is the second element in a main clause or the last in a subordinate clause. Verbs in the infinitive are generally placed after their respective objects.
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Main Sentence
If a verb has a separable prefix, this prefix is moved to the end of the sentence.
Statement
A simple statement is constructed in the following manner: the subject comes first, then the conjugated verb, then the object and any infinitives or participles.
If the conjugated verb has a separable prefix, this prefix stays at the end of the sentence.
In addition, past participles in the perfect tenses fall at the end of the sentence, with the conjugated auxiliary verb (Hilfsverb) in the second position of the sentence.
Conventional German syntax presents information within a sentence in the following order:
- Wichtigstes (what is the most important thing of the things following? *, **)
- Was (what? the conjugated verb***)
- 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)
*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.
**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.
***and 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."
Wir gehen am Freitag miteinander ins Kino. Literally,
"We go on Friday together to the movies."
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."
Additionally, when the accusative object is a pronoun, it moves in front of the dative object. 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
By an inversion you emphasize a component 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.
Questions
Questions may be divided into yes/no questions, asking for the truthfulness of a statement, and specific questions, which ask for a concrete aspect of a statement.
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.
Yes/No questions
This kind of question is similar to the inversion: you put the inflected verb at the beginning of the (not inverted) sentence.
Asking for subject or object
In a normal question, you replace the subject phrase or object phrase with a corresponding interrogative pronoun, then move it to the beginning of the sentence, like an inversion. Theoretically, you must use the interrogative pronoun of welcher, welche, welches or a nominal phrase with the interrogative article.
But the usage of this pronoun implies that the speaker knows both the gender and number of the unknown object. So, practically, you replace these pronouns by short forms.
Regardless of whether you use the full pronoun or the short form, the genitive case is practically only used for genitive objects. See Asking for a possessor.
Asking for a predicative
You ask for a predicative with the either interrogative pronoun Was or, if knowing it is not a nominal phrase, Wie.
You can also use other interrogative pronouns like Wo.
Asking for an adverbial
It is possible to ask for the adverbial of a predicative, if it is not a nominal phrase (and even for the adverbial of the adverbial etc.)
Asking for a possessor
When searching for the possessor of a nominal phrase, one first acts as if one would invert the corresponding statement, placing the noun with the unknown possessor at the beginning. Then one gives it the genitive case of the interrogative pronoun (wessen for all cases, genders and numbers). Of course, this nominal phrase may not have a genitive possessor.
Asking for an adverb
First the interrogative pronoun (Wie), then the conjugated verb, next the subject, then the rest of the sentence.
If the adverb describes another adverb or an adjective:
Asking for position or adverbial clause
Developing the question for an adverbial phrase may be slightly more complicated.
Theoretically, like the other specific questions, the unknown position is inverted to the beginning of the sentence. Whereas the pre- or post- position remains, the nominal part is replaced either by an interrogative pronoun or by a nominal phrase having the interrogative article.
Practically, the person asking the question will know neither the gender of the noun, nor the number of the noun, nor even the kind of preposition, before he hears the answer. So a short form is used instead in nearly every case. These short forms are also the only way to ask for an adverbial clause or for a proposition.
Some interrogative pronouns: Wo, Woher, Wohin, Wann, Wieso, Weshalb, Warum, Weswegen.
Commands
For a command, take the imperative form of the conjugated verb from the infinitive and put it at the beginning of the sentence followed by the corresponding personal pronoun. There also must be an exclamation point at the end of the sentence to make it a command. The separable prefix, if there is one, remains at its old place, separated. In the literary language it is possible to leave the verb at the second place.
If the verb changes the vowel in the second and third person singular, the vowel is also changed in the second person singular of the imperative.
The 2nd person plural pronoun is always omitted. In archaic language, or to emphasize who is ordered for the action, the 2nd person singular pronoun may be left.
Note that an "'e"' may be added on to the end of the command form, but only if the verb does not have a stem-change. This is a result of the spoken language and has no difference in meaning. Schreib das Wort auf! means the same as Schreibe das Wort auf! ("Write the word down!")
*Lese das Buch!, though very common in spoken language, is considered incorrect because the stem changes from les to lies in the command form. Lies das Buch! ("Read the book!") (singular) and Lest das Buch! (plural) are correct.
There are no imperative forms for first person plural and second person formal. The first and third person plural of the conditional of the present (this is mostly the same form as the indicative aside from sein 'to be' for which seien is used) is used (but not for tun 'to do' for which tun is used). You must put it to beginning of the sentence, separate the separable prefix before that, and place the personal pronouns wir or Sie directly after it.
Note that imperatives must have the same word order as yes/no questions.
Actual commands are often given as a simple unconjugated infinitive. This is inevitable in the military (excepting the formal commands Rührt euch and Richt't euch), but is not restricted to it.
The military command "Stillgestanden", Freeze!, as well as the everyday expression "Aufgepaßt!" (pay attention to that!), oddly even take the perfect participle for an imperative.
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Subordinate clauses
A subordinate clause (Nebensatz) is always incorporated in a main sentence (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 its 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 with two infinitives, "double infinitive"), the auxiliary verb, which is invariably haben, comes before the two (or more) infinitives. Such constructions can usually be avoided altogether by using the simple past:
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. However, the verb must go at the end of the sentence. Ich denke, dass er ein Vater ist.
Indirect questions with ob
Whereas the word dass indicates that the statement is a fact, ob starts an indirect yes/no question.
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.
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.
Prepositions/Postpositions are attached to these phrases in the relative clause if necessary.
If the relative pronoun is identical to the definite article several identical forms may follow each other.
Such constructions are generally avoided by using forms of welch- as relative pronouns.
or rather
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".
From sentences such as this
one may understand why colloquial usage extends this to other quasi-locational prepositional expressions
and then, in slang, to all relative clauses:
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 genus.
Adverbial clauses
An adverbial clause begins with a conjunction, defining its relation to the verb or nominal phrase described.
Some examples of conjunctions: als, während, nachdem, weil.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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