by Olly Richards
Verb position in German, along with many other aspects of learning German, can seem confusing right?
It's as if German sentences were encoded using some sort of Shakespearian language. I mean, where on earth do you actually put these verbs to make your sentence!?
The good news for you is that German sentence structure follows a clear set of rules. And verb position is one of the more straightforward concepts in German grammar.
I've always said that one of the big advantages of learning German is it's logic (a lot of which it also shares with English).
In this article, you'll see the logic of the language in action when it comes to where to verb position in German.
You'll learn exactly where to put German verbs in different situations, including the “dreaded” verb at the end. Don't worry, it's not so scary after all.
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In the meantime, back to the subject at hand…
1. Normal Word Order: The Verb Comes Second
With a few exceptions, the verb comes second in German sentences.
Let's look at a few examples where the verb comes second. I've labelled each element of the sentence so you can tell the verbs from the other parts of the sentence.
2. How To Ask Questions In German
So far, German sentences appear to share an almost identical structure to English sentences. So far, so good right?
However, a few extra rules come into play as we start to change certain elements.
For example, when asking a question, the verb comes first.
3. Dealing With Double Verbs
Two Verbs In A Sentence
When you have two verbs in a German sentence, you place the conjugated verb in the second position and the unconjugated verb at the end of the sentence.
- Note – A conjugated verb is a verb that changes to indicate the gender, tense, number, person or other aspects of the sentence. For example, in English, “played” is a conjugated form of the verb “to play” that indicates past time.
Let's look at the following example.
Simplifying Separable Prefixes
Some verbs in German have a prefix attached to them. In this case, it's usually a preposition.
A prefix is a short word attached to the beginning of a word. For example, in English, “un” is a prefix you add to certain words to change their meaning: “happy” => “unhappy”.
When a verb has a separable prefix, the prefix is moved to the end of the sentence. Here's what happens with the verbs einkaufen (to shop) and anfangen ( to begin/to start), which are both examples of verbs with separable prefixes.
4. German Conjunctions: The 2 Types Of Conjunctions
Conjunctions are little words that you use to join two parts of a sentence together. “And”, “because” and “so” are all examples of conjunctions in English.
There are certain German conjunctions that require a change of word order. Let's start with the simplest case: German conjunctions that don't affect the word order.
#1: German Conjunctions That Don't Change The Word Order: Coordinating Conjunctions
The German conjunctions that don't affect the word order are:
- und (and)
- denn (because)
- sondern (rather)
- aber (but)
- oder (or)
These types of conjunction are “coordinating conjunctions”. After this type of conjunction, clauses have the same subject, verb, object word order.
#2: German Conjunctions That Change The Word Order: Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating German conjunctions, on the other hand, are a different story.
Following subordinating conjunctions, the first verb is moved to the end of the sentence.
Some of the most commonly-used subordinating conjunctions are:
- bis (until)
- während (during)
- als (as)
- da (because)
- weil (because)
- ob (if)
- wenn (when)
- obwohl (although, even though)
- dass (that)
Here are some examples in context so you can see what these conjunctions do to the verbs:
The more adjectives, adverbs, and sentence modifiers you add, the longer it can take to finally get to the verb at the end.
As Mark Twain once said:
“Wenn er aber auf der Straße der in Samt und Seide gehüllten, jetzt sehr ungeniert nach der neusten Mode gekleideten Resräthin begegnet.”
In other words:
“But when he, upon the street, the (in-satin-and-silk-covered-now-very-unconstrained-after-the-newest-fashioned-dressed) government counselor’s wife met.”
On a positive note, at least there are no rule exceptions to worry about here.
5. And Finally: The Verb Comes Last
Although the primary rule is to place the verb second in German, there are many circumstances when the verb comes last.
For example, you've already seen how subordinating conjunctions can send verbs all the way to the end of a very long sentence.
However, there are a few other instances when the verb comes last. Let's take a look at 2 examples: how modal verbs and relative clauses affect verb order.
Example #1: Modal Verbs
The modal verbs are “helping verbs”, meaning that you can only use them to modify another verb, but not on their own.
Some examples are:
- müssen (must)
- können (can)
- sollen (should)
- möchten (like)
- dürfen (may)
When using a modal verb in a sentence, the second verb changes to the infinitive form and moves to the end of the sentence.
Changing the verb to the infinitive form and moving it to the end of the sentence might feel weird at first. But will become much easier with practice and exposure to German.
Let's look at the following examples:
As you can see, the modal verb is always conjugated, while the second verb takes the infinitive form.
When asking questions, the modal verb comes first.
Example #2: Relative Clauses
Relative clauses, or Nebensätze, also send verbs packing to the end of the sentence.
Relative clauses are bits of a sentence that you can remove without changing the whole meaning of the sentence. In English, they start with “who”, “what”, or “that”. For example, in this sentence “the man who I saw in the street was very tall”, the relative clause is “who I saw in the street”.
If you're dealing with multiple verbs in a sentence, the first verb will be sent to the end of the sentence.
Let's look at a few examples.
Relative clauses come directly after the word they are modifying. The rest of the sentence maintains the standard subject, verb, object word order.
6. German Word Order: 2 Cases Of Inverted Sentence Structure
German word order is not set in stone. In fact, it's common to see inverted sentence structures in the German language. Let's look at a few different ways to write the same sentence.
Case #1: Sentences With Time Words
- Morgen (adverb) muss (modal verb) ich (subject) Wäsche (object) waschen (second verb). (Tomorrow I have to wash the laundry)
The same sentence can be written like this:
- Ich muss morgen Wäsche waschen.
The adverb is free to move around within a sentence. You can also move the object of the sentence.
- Die Wäsche muss ich morgen waschen.
Regardless of the placement of the adverbs and objects, the verbs stay in the second and last positions.
Case #2: Sentences With Prepositional Phrases
Similarly, when a prepositional phrase comes at the beginning of the sentence, the verb comes directly afterward in the second position. A prepositional phrase is a part of the sentence containing a preposition (words like “in”, “on”, or “over” in English).
- Auf die neue Waschmaschine (prepositional phrase) warten (verb) wir (subject). (We're waiting for the new washing machine)
- In die Schule (prepositional phrase) gehen (verb) die Kinder (subject). (The children go to school)
- Um das Gebäude (prepositional phrase) laufen (verb) wir (subject) herum. (We're walking around the building)
The purpose of inverting a sentence in German is to emphasise a particular aspect of the situation. Since German word order is flexible, it's possible to accentuate any part of the sentence you choose.
7. Time, Manner, Place
German verbs are always either in the second or last position in a sentence. You've seen how changing word order lets you emphasise different elements of a sentence.
You've also learned when to move verbs to the end of a sentence to make space for prepositional phrases and temporal adverbs.
But there's one more important aspect to remember about German sentences.
When faced with various adverbs that need placement within a sentence, we always follow the rule time, manner, place.
- Time adverbs come first (yesterday, tomorrow etc)
- Adverbs describing the manner in which something happens come second (quickly, angrily etc)
- and finally the place
Take a look at these examples:
Verb Position In German: Simplified
In most circumstances, German sentences follow the structure subject, verb, object. Just like in English. In the image below, you'll see a quick summary of the verb positions and what causes the changes.
German allows for flexibility, so feel free to change up your sentence structure to emphasise particular words. Just remember, the verb must stay in its second, or last, position. And adverbs need to follow the format time, manner, and place.
When you follow this logic, you'll be making German sounding sentences in no time with all the verbs in the right places. With the right strategy, you can learn tricky grammar points, and boost your fluency as a result.
As you read or listen to German, try to notice the verb placement, and relate it to what you've learned in this post. The more input you get, the more these rules will feel natural and intuitive to you.
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Otherwise, let me know in the comments – do you feel more confident about verb position in German after reading this post?
