German sentence structure

German sentence structure is the structure to which the German language adheres. The basic sentence
in German follows SVO word order.[1] Additionally, German, like all west Germanic languages except
English,[note 1] uses V2 word order, though only in independent clauses. In dependent clauses, the finite
verb is placed last (subject–object–verb word order).

Independent clauses

Declarative sentences
Declarative sentences use V2 (verb in the second position) word order: the finite verb is preceded by one
and only one constituent (unlike in English, this need not be the subject); in Germanic tradition, the
position occupied by this constituent is referred to as the prefield (Vorfeld). Coordinating conjunctions
like und ('and') or aber ('but') precede both the prefield and the finite verb, and so do topicalised elements
(similarly to "that" in English phrases such as "that I don't know"). The prefield is often used to convey
emphasis.

Ich sehe den Baum.

ich seh-e den
I.nom see.prs-1sg the.acc.sg.m
Baum
tree.acc.sg
'I see the tree.'

Den Baum sehe ich.

den Baum seh-e
the.acc.sg.m tree.acc.sg see.prs-1sg
ich
I.nom
'I see the tree.'

Du siehst den Fluss, und ich sehe den Baum.

du siehst den
you.sg see.prs.2sg the.acc.sg.m
Fluss und ich
river.acc.sg and I.nom
seh-e den Baum
see.prs.1sg the.acc.sg.m tree.acc.sg
'You see the river, and I see the tree.'

Non-finite verbs as well as separable particles are placed at the end of the sentence:
 Der König ist an der Burg angekommen.
der König ist
the.nom.sg.m king.nom.sg be.prs.3sg
an der Burg
at the.dat.sg.f castle.dat.sg
an=ge-komm-en
on=pst.ptcp1‍-come-pst.ptcp1‍
'The King has arrived (lit. "is on-come") at the castle.'

Der König kam an der Burg an.

der König kam
the.nom.sg.m king.nom.sg come.pst.3sg
an der Burg
at the.dat.sg.f castle.dat.sg
an
on
'The King arrived (lit. "on-came") at the castle.'

Der König wird an der Burg ankommen.

der König wird
the.nom.sg.m king.nom.sg will.prs.3sg
an der Burg
at the.dat.sg.f castle.dat.sg
an=komm-en
on=come-inf
'The King will arrive (lit. "will on-come") at the castle.'

In the midfield (the part of the clause between the position of the finite verb and that of the clause-final
verb cluster), German word order is highly variable.

Conventional German syntax presents information within a sentence in the following order:

Wichtigstes (what is the most important thing within all the elements following the finite
verb?)
The word da when taking the meaning of "then suddenly" must take the first place. Dann
('then') 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 (normally second) part of the
separable verb is placed here, but still separated from the conjugated (normally first)
part. If the verb is not separable or periphrastical, the infinitive is used.
Was ('what?' - the conjugated verb)
In this case, a form of tun is inserted for the conjugated verb, as in "Arbeiten tun wir"
("Working, that's what we do").
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)

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:

Er ist größer gewesen als ich. / Er war größer als ich.

OR

Er ist größer als ich gewesen

'He was greater than me.'

German often structure 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? '(On) 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:

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
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. The conjugated verb is always the second sentence element in indicative statements.

Example 1:

"Ich fliege schnell." 'I fly fast.' – unstressed

"Schnell fliege ich." 'I fly fast.' – stressed "schnell"/'fast' (i.e., "Fast is how I fly.")

Example 2:

"Du bist wunderschön." 'You are lovely." – unstressed

"Wunderschön bist du." 'You are lovely.' – stressed "wunderschön"/'lovely' (i.e., "Lovely
is what you are.")

Example 3:

"Ich bin gelaufen." 'I ran.' – unstressed

"Gelaufen bin ich!" 'I ran!' – stressed "gelaufen"/'ran' (i.e., "Run is what I did!")

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 (if there is one), and then the rest of the sentence.

Was machst du jetzt? ("What are you doing now?")

Wer geht ins Kino? ("Who is going to the cinema?" – In this sentence, the interrogative
pronoun wer serves as the subject)

Yes–no questions
In yes–no questions, V1 (verb-first) word order is used: the finite verb occupies the first position in the
sentence; here, there is no prefield.

Siehst du den Baum?

siehst du den
see.prs.2sg you.sg the.acc.sg.m
Baum
tree.acc.sg
'Do you see the tree?'

However, conjunctions and topicalised elements still precede the finite verb:

Aber hast du den Baum gesehen?

aber hast du
but have.prs.2sg you.sg
den Baum ge-seh-en
 the.acc.sg.m tree.acc.sg pst.ptcp1‍-see-pst.ptcp1‍

'But have you seen the tree?'

Den Baum, hast du den gesehen?

den Baum hast
the.acc.sg.m tree.acc.sg have.prs.2sg
du den ge-seh-en
you.sg dem.acc.sg.m pst.ptcp1‍-see-pst.ptcp1‍

'The tree, have you seen it?'

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

Welchen Baum hast du gesehen?

welchen Baum hast
interr.det.acc.sg.m tree.acc.sg have.prs.2sg
du ge-seh-en
you.sg pst.ptcp1‍-see-pst.ptcp1‍

'What tree have you seen?'

Wohin gehen wir?

wohin geh-en wir
whither go.prs-1pl we.nom
'Where are we going?'

Commands
For commands, the imperative mood is used. Like questions, commands use V1 word order:

Reich(e) mir das Salz!

reich-(e) mir das
pass-imp.sg I.dat the.acc.sg.n
Salz
salt.acc.sg
'Pass me the salt!'

In contemporary German, the imperative singular ending -e is usually omitted. The second-person-
singular pronouns du 'you (sg)' and ihr 'you (pl)' are always omitted, except in highly formal or literary
language:

Bringe du mir das Buch!

bring-e du mir
fetch-imp.sg you.sg I.dat
 das Buch
the.acc.sg.n book.acc.sg
'Fetch me the book!'

Like in English, nouns or non-finite verb forms can sometimes be used to give commands:

Achtung Stufe!
Achtung Stufe
attention.nom.sg step.nom.sg
'Mind the step!'

Warm anziehen nicht vergessen!

warm an=zieh-en nicht
warm.adj on=pull-inf not
vergess-en
forget-inf
'Don't forget to dress warmly!'

Dependent clauses
Subordinate clauses use Vfinal word order.

'That' clauses
Using dass 'that':

Ich weiß, dass er hier ist.

Ich weiß dass
I.nom know.prs.1sg that
er hier ist
he.nom here be.prs.3sg
'I know that he's here.'

Wer hat dir erzählt, dass ich nach England ziehen werde?
wer hat dir
who.nom have.prs.3sg you.dat.sg
erzähl-t dass ich
tell.pst.ptcp that I.nom
nach England zieh-en
to England.nom move.inf
werd-e
will.prs.1sg
'Who told you that I'm moving to England?'

Dass zwei größer als eins ist, ist selbstverständlich

 dass zwei größer
that two greater
als eins ist,
than one be.prs.3sg
ist selbstverständlich
be.prs.3sg obvious
'That two is greater than one is obvious.'

Clauses headed by a subordinator

Sie schrieb es nieder, sodass sie es nicht vergessen würde.
sie schrieb es
she.nom write.pret.3sg it.acc
nieder sodass sie
down so.that she.nom
es nicht vergess-en
it.acc not forget.inf
würd-e
will.subjii-3sg
'She wrote it down so that she would not forget it.'

Wir sollten uns beeilen, damit wir rechtzeitig ankommen.

wir soll-t-en uns
we.nom shall-pret-1pl we.refl
beeil-en damit wir
hurry-inf in.order.that we.nom
rechtzeitig an=komm-en
in.time on=.come-inf
'We should hurry so that we arrive in time.'

Ich helfe dir, weil ich dich mag.

ich helf-e dir
I.nom help.prs-1sg you.sg.dat
weil ich dich
because I.nom you.acc
mag
like.prs.1sg
'I help you because I like you.'

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 (dessen, deren) and in the dative plural (denen).
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.

Der König, der sah den Fluss.

der
the.nom.sg.m
Intonation of German restrictive relative clauses
König
king.nom.sg
der sah
rel.nom.sg.m see.pst.3sg
den Fluss
the.acc.sg.m river.acc.sg
'The king, who saw the river.'

Das Haus, in dem ich wohne, ist sehr alt.

das Haus in
the.nom.sg.n house.nom.sg in
dem ich wohne
rel.dat.sg.n I.nom live.prs.1sg
ist sehr alt
be.prs.3sg very old
'The house in which I live is very old.'

The relative pronoun dem is neuter singular to agree with Haus, but dative because it follows a
preposition in its own clause. On the same basis, it would be possible to substitute the pronoun welchem.

However, German uses the uninflecting was ('what') as a relative pronoun when the antecedent is alles,
etwas or nichts ('everything', 'something', 'nothing'.).

Alles, was Jack macht, gelingt ihm.

alles was Jack
everything.nom.sg.n what.acc.sg Jack.nom
macht gelingt ihm
do.prs.3sg turn out well.prs.3sg 3sg.dat
'Everything that Jack does is a success.'

In German, all relative clauses are marked with commas.

Alternatively, particularly in formal registers, participles (both active and passive) can be used to embed
relative clauses in adjectival phrases:
 Die von ihm in jenem Stil gemalten Bilder sind sehr begehrt.
'The pictures he painted in that style are highly sought after.'
Die Regierung möchte diese im letzten Jahr eher langsam wachsende Industrie weiter
fördern.
'The government would like to further promote this industry, which has grown rather slowly
over the last year.'

Unlike English, which only permits relatively small participle phrases in adjectival positions (typically
just the participle and adverbs), 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.

Als ich auf dem Meer segelte ("When/As I was sailing on the sea")

Some examples of conjunctions: als, während, nachdem, weil.

Notes
1. Although English uses V2 word order in certain circumstances, such as questions.

References
1. Haider, Hubert (2010). The Syntax of German. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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