Review
of Word Order
1. In most sentences, the order is subject - verb
- time - manner - place.
Ich gehe morgen mit dem Bus in die
Schule. I'm going to school tomorrow by
bus.
2. Sometimes another element begins a
sentence instead of a subject. Then the verb
is still in the second position, but the subject follows
it.
Morgen gehe ich mit dem Bus in die
Schule. Tomorrow I'm going to school by
bus.
3. In sentences with more than one verb
or with past participles, the conjugated verb remains
in the normal position and the infinitive or past
participle goes to the end of the sentence.
Ich will nach Hause gehen. I
want to go home.
Ich habe dir geglaubt. I believed you.
4. When asking questions, you can usually
just invert the subject and verb.
Kann ich jetzt gehen? Can
I go now?
5. In sentences with dependent clauses
(phrases that have a subject and verb but cannot stand
alone as sentences), the verb in the dependent clause
is last. Dependent clauses are introduced with
a comma and certain conjunctions, such as als-when,
bevor-before, bis-until, damit-so
that, dass-that, wenn-if/when, ob-whether,
obwohl-although, nachdem-after, da-since,
während-while, weil-because, and wie-how.
However, these conjunctions use normal word
order: und-and, oder-or, aber-but,
denn-for/because.
Ich bleibe im Bett, wenn ich krank
bin. I stay in bed when I am sick.
6. If there is a separable prefix
verb in a dependent clause, the prefix remains attached
to the verb, and the entire verb goes to the end of
the sentence, whereas normally the prefix would go
to the end.
Er ist immer müde, wenn er früh aufsteht.
He is always tired when he gets up early.
7. When there are two verbs in a
dependent clause (such as a modal and an infinitive),
the modal goes last, following the infinitive.
Er ist müde, wenn er früh aufstehen
muss. He is tired when he must get up early.
8. And when a dependent clause begins
a sentence, it acts as an element, therefore the subject
and verb in the following clause are inverted.
Wenn ich krank bin, bleibe ich im Bett.
When I am sick, I stay in bed.
9. If you have both direct and indirect
pronouns in your sentence, remember that if the direct
object is a noun it is placed after
the indirect object. If the direct object is
a pronoun, it goes before the indirect
object. So basically the only time the accusative
is placed before the dative is when the accusative
is a pronoun.
Ich schenke meinem Bruder eine Krawatte.
I give my brother a tie.
Ich schenke sie meinem Bruder. I give
it to my brother.
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