In this article, you'll see the logic of the language in action when it comes to where to verb position in German. 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). And verb position is one of the more straightforward concepts in German grammar. The good news for you is that German sentence structure follows a clear set of rules. I mean, where on earth do you actually put these verbs to make your sentence!? It's as if German sentences were encoded using some sort of Shakespearian language. Ich bin heute Morgen um 6 Uhr schnell in die Bibliothek gelaufen.Verb position in German, along with many other aspects of learning German, can seem confusing right? I walked quickly to the library at 6:00 this morning. Sie wandert heute Nachmittag zu Fuß in den Bergen. She’s hiking on foot in the mountains (=in den Bergen) this afternoon. Jeden Freitag trinkt er mit seinen Freunden in der Kneipe. Ich fliege morgen früh um 8.30 Uhr mit dem Flugzeug nach Deutschland.Įvery Friday he drinks in the bar with his friends. I’m flying to Germany tomorrow morning at 8:30 by plane. (oder: Wir bleiben am Sonntag mit unseren Freunden zu Hause.) On Sunday we’re staying at home with our friends.Īm Sonntag bleiben wir mit unseren Freunden zu Hause. Now try to translate these sentences using correct phrasing and word order! (unusual: stresses “Chicago” as important) (unusual: this stresses “to school” as important) (unusual: this emphasizes ‘8:00’ as important) (normal word order, stressing ‘today’ slightly) Nach Hawaii ist Tina im Jahre 1997 mit ihren Eltern gefahren. Other rules regarding verb placement and word order still apply, no matter what starts the sentence. Note: if some information other than the time element is extremely important, you may move it to the front of the sentence, but this is quite unusual and you must emphasize the out-of-place element vocally. Im Jahre 1997 ist Tina mit ihren Eltern nach Hawaii geflogen. Tina ist im Jahre 1997 mit ihren Eltern nach Hawaii geflogen. As long as you keep the verb in second position, and follow the secondary rule of time-manner-place, you can move many elements in a sentence around. ‘heute Morgen’ is one element.) When you start a sentence with something other than the subject, then the subject must immediately follow the verb (e.g. (An element can be comprised of more than one word, e.g. Also, remember that the conjugated VERB in a German sentence is NOT moveable, and needs to be the SECOND element in the sentence. Unlike English, there is NO COMMA used when a time element occurs first in a German sentence. German word order is slightly flexible: time elements can be moved to the front of the sentence. Lars kommt am Mittwoch um 14 Uhr mit seinen Freunden nach Hause. Susi fährt jeden Tag um 8 Uhr mit dem Bus in die Schule. Also, general time (days) comes before specific time (2:00), which is the same as English (‘today at 5:00’ = heute um 5 Uhr). This is different from English, so you’ll need to get used to saying the time before the place. by car, with friends, happily), and the place or destination occurs last of the three. Time elements occur before manner elements (how you do something, e.g. Generally speaking, German sentences follow the rule of TIME-MANNER-PLACE. With a preposition (an, in, vor) = DATIVEĪs a reminder, various units of time in German: Remember that you can extrapolate from this list to form whatever time phrases you wish to use, but bear in mind that prepositions will require dative, while standalone forms are in the accusative case. Ich bin vor einem Jahr nach Deutschland geflogen. If you wish to use a preposition with a time element - in, an and vor are the likely choices - they will require the dative case. You’ve been using this all along, probably without realizing it.
#GERMAN GRAMMAR STRUCTURE PLUS#
If you wish to state a definite time as a noun plus an article - without any preposition - then it should occur in the accusative case. Let’s expand what you know by looking at what case these time expressions are using. You’ve already learned many ways to express the time and day in German - for instance, ‘am Freitag’ or ‘um 8 Uhr’.
Time Expressions and Word Order Time Expressions and Word Order
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