![]() A main clause is a sentence that is independent (also “independent clause), because it makes complete sense on its own. There are coordinating conjunctions, which are “glue words” or “connecting words” that we use to connect two main clauses. Spielen tue ich samstags mit meinen Freunden Fußball.īoth in English and in German, we can “glue” clauses together by using conjunctions. We would have to add the verb “tun” (to do), and the verb “spiele” would change back to its infinitive form “spielen” This is referred to as “inverted word order”.Ĭould we have put the verb in position one, you might ask? Yes, we could have, but then the construction changes a bit more. Mit meinen Freunden spiele ich samstags Fußball. (putting emphasis on “with my friends”.įußball spiele ich mit meinen Freunden samstags. (putting emphasis on “soccer”).Įach of these scenarios emphasizes a different element, but they all have one thing in common: the subject slipped behind the verb: “spiele ich”, and this is what happens every time we put something other than the subject at the beginning of the sentence. Samstags spiele ich mit meinen Freunden Fußball. (putting emphasis on “Saturdays”) The above sentence follows the S-V-O rule, but I can put any of the elements in position one in order to put emphasis on it. This sentence has different elements: A subject ( Ich), a verb ( spiele) an adverb of time ( samstags) a direct object ( Fußball) and an indirect object with a preposition (mit meinen Freunden). Ich spiele samstags mit meinen Freunden Fußball. Here are five examples:Īny element in a sentence, an adjective, and adverb, a verb, a direct or indirect object, can be placed in “position 1”, the beginning of the sentence, for the sake of putting emphasis on that particular element. German word order is a lot more temperamental, and there are several instances that cause the verb to move around in the sentence, changing this “S-V-O” arrangement. Other than that, English word order is relatively stable. There are only a handful of instances in English where that formula S-V-O changes, for example, questions: When we ask a question with the verb “to be”, the verb and subject switch places: “Are you hungry?” In this question, the verb “are” comes before the subject “you”. “Ich lese ein Buch” follows the same word order as its translation “I read a book”. ![]() In regular German word order, German follows the rule of Subject – Verb – Object, which means, the subject usually comes first, then the verb describing what the subject is doing, then the object that is being “verbed”.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |