![]() NOTE: the ‘subject’, ‘verb’, and ‘more verbs’ are ALL color-coded pink because they make up a complete, standard clause (more on that below) and pink, specifically, is the color I use to denote the nominative case and the verb(s) paired with it. GERMAN: SUBJECT + VERB + MORE NOUNS + MORE VERBS The standard pattern in either English or German can be broken down into FOUR positions:ĮNGLISH: SUBJECT + VERB + MORE VERBS + MORE NOUNS Let’s look at this more closely! Pattern #1: Standard ![]() When we translate patterns #2-4 word-for-word, the English versions sound very weird. Notice how it’s ONLY pattern #1 that translates cleanly into English. (I wanted to call my grandma ‘because I her love!’) Pattern #1 + #4 (Standard + Subordinating): Ich wollte meine Oma anrufen, weil ich sie liebe! Pattern #3 (Transposed): Meine Oma wollte ich anrufen Pattern #2 (Inverted): Wollte ich meine Oma anrufen Pattern #1 (Standard): Ich wollte meine Oma anrufen. In order to understand the super-nuanced details of word order, we need to first take a step back and afford ourselves a bird’s eye view of these meta German sentence structure patterns (<– if you haven’t already read this ‘starter guide’ to German word order, stop and read this first before continuing here!).Īs always, you can leverage your advantages as an adult learner of German by comparing English & German grammar structures, so … English & German Word Order, ComparedĬheck out these examples of German sentences and their word-for-word English translations: ![]() On a meta-level, there are FOUR word order patterns used for sentences as a whole and then additional rules governing the word order of particular elements within the sentence. While this means that there’s, again, some new principles to learn in order to master German sentence structure, I personally really appreciate the additional creativity of German sentences and I hope you’ll learn to find it fun, too! As per usual, English has simpler sentence structure options while the possibilities in German are more numerous and complex. ‘Word order’ refers to a set of rules that determine how we can properly construct sentences in order to convey our desired meaning.Īs surely comes as no surprise at this point, there are different word order patterns in English vs. So, what is word order exactly and how does it function in English vs. the case system & declensions, make that possible! The word order differences between English and German are due to these languages belonging to entirely different categories of language - analytic and inflected, respectively.Įnglish uses very rigid word order because it must, in lieu of other grammar components which were erased from the language over the centuries.īut German has relatively flexible word order because it can - certain grammar elements, i.e.
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