German sentence structure


German sentence structure is the syntactical structure to which the German language adheres. The basic sentence in German can be seen following the subject–verb–object word order. Additionally, German, like all living Germanic standard languages except English, uses V2 word order, though generally in independent clauses. In normal dependent clauses, the finite verb is placed last, followed by the infinite verb if existing, whereas main clauses including an auxiliary verb reserve the default final position for the infinite verb, keeping the finite verb second. Hence, both of these sentence types apply subject–object–verb word order, the first one quite purely, the latter in a mix. It is not uncommon to consider SOV the basic type.

Independent clauses

Declarative sentences

Declarative sentences use V2 word order: the finite verb is preceded by one and only one constituent ; in Germanic tradition, the position occupied by this constituent is referred to as the prefield. Coordinating conjunctions like und or aber precede both the prefield and the finite verb, and so do topicalised elements. The prefield is often used to convey emphasis.
Non-finite verbs as well as separable particles are placed at the end of the sentence:
In the midfield, German word order is highly variable.
Conventional German syntax presents information within a declarative sentence in the following order:
  • Wichtigstes
  • *The word da when taking the meaning of "then suddenly" must take the first place. Dann does so often, but not necessarily; otherwise, the subject of the sentence may take first place.
  • *If the verb is the most important, the unconjugated part of the separable verb is placed here, but still separated from the conjugated part. If the verb is not separable or periphrastical, the infinitive is used.
  • Was
  • *In this case, a form of tun is inserted for the conjugated verb, as in "Arbeiten tun wir".
  • Wer
  • Wem
  • Wann
  • Warum
  • Wie
  • Wo
  • Wen
  • Wohin/Woher
  • Verb, nochmal
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.'
In conversational past tense, comparisons can be put after both parts of the verb. So:Mein Bernhardiner war größer gewesen als ich. / Mein Bernhardiner war größer als ich. ORMein Bernhardiner war größer als ich gewesen 'My St. Bernard had been bigger than I. / My St. Bernard was bigger than I.'
German often structures a sentence according to increasing importance of the phrase towards the conversation. So:
Wir gehen am Donnerstag ins Kino. 'We're going to the movies on Thursday.'
BUT
An welchem Tag gehen wir ins Kino? ' What day are we going to the movies?'
Am Donnerstag gehen wir ins Kino. 'On Thursday we're going to the movies.'OR Wir gehen am Donnerstag ins Kino. 'We're going on Thursday to the movies.'
In ditransitive sentences, pronouns usually go between the verb and all other elements of the sentence:
Maria gibt mir morgen das Hemd. 'Maria is giving me tomorrow the shirt.' BUT Maria gibt es mir morgen. 'Maria is giving it to me tomorrow.'

Inversion

An inversion is used to emphasize an adverbial phrase, a predicative, an object, or an inner verbal phrase in a sentence. 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 as the conjugated verb is always the second sentence element in such indicative statements.
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:

Interrogative sentences

Questions are generally divided into yes–no questions and wh-questions.
Specific questions are similar to inverted statements. They begin with a question word, which is followed by the conjugated verb, followed by the subject, and then the rest of the sentence.

Yes–no questions

In yes–no questions, the verb-initial word order is used: the finite verb occupies the first position in the sentence; here, there is no prefield.
However, conjunctions and topicalised elements still precede the finite verb:

Wh questions

Wh questions work in much the same way as they do in English. Like English, German also has Wh-movement:

Commands

For commands, the imperative mood is used. Like questions, commands use V1 word order:
In contemporary German, the imperative singular ending -e is usually omitted. The second-person-singular pronouns du 'you ' and ihr 'you ' are redundant but sometimes used for emphasis:
Like in English, nouns or non-finite verb forms can sometimes be used to give commands:

Dependent clauses

Verb-second is retained in many dependent clauses of high importance which are recognizable by their conjunctions, especially: und, oder, aber, sondern, doch, jedoch, denn.
This V2 construction cannot introduce the entire sentence. More typically, dependent clauses follow the Vfinal scheme :

'That' clauses

Using dass 'that':

Relative clauses

There are two varieties of relative clauses. The more common one is based on the definite article der, die, das, but with distinctive forms in the genitive and in the dative plural. Historically, this is related to the English that. The second, which is typically used in more literary contexts 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.
The relative pronoun dem is neuter singular to agree with Landhaus, but dative because it follows a preposition in its own clause. On the same basis, it would be possible to substitute the given neuter noun with the pronoun welchem.
However, German uses the uninflecting was as a relative pronoun when the antecedent is alles, etwas or nichts.
In German, all relative clauses are marked with commas, so they follow the general standard for dependent clauses.
Alternatively, particularly in formal registers, participles can be used to embed relative clauses in adjectival phrases:
Unlike English, which only permits relatively small participle phrases in adjectival positions, and disallows the use of direct objects for active participles, German sentences of this sort can embed clauses of arbitrary complexity.

Adverbial clauses

An adverbial clause begins with a conjunction, defining its relation to the verb or nominal phrase described.
Some other examples of such conjunctions: während, bevor, nachdem, obwohl, wenn/falls. Dropping the latter, conditional conjunction makes the clause appear like a yes–no question: