Grammar of the German sentence

Introduction

In this article we will look at the construction of sentences in the German language. The main feature of the Germans is that they very much honor the word order, you cannot arbitrarily rearrange them in a sentence.
Subject and predicate in a sentence in German

In the sentences of the German language, the subject and the predicate are necessarily present: the one who does the action and the action itself. German language does not tolerate understatement. You can’t just say: “It’s cold today”, say: “Heute ist es kalt”, which literally means “It’s cold today”.
Word order in german language

Word order is kept very strictly. His violation is a gross grammatical error. The verb in the sentence always takes the second position.

“Wir essen Bananen” – we eat bananas;

A compound sentence is built on the same principle:

“Arno kaufst Milch und Derek kaufe Salz” – Arno buys milk, Derek buys salt;

Subject is not necessarily in the first place. The word order may vary, but the verb always remains in second place! If the subject is not at the beginning of the sentence, it should be placed immediately after the verb.

“Ihr geht morgen ins Kino” – you go to the cinema tomorrow;

“Morgen geht ihr ins Kino”;

“Ins Kino geht ihr morgen”.

Please note that the second place in a sentence is not necessarily the second word in a sentence:

“Heute um 4 Uhr am Nachmittag komme ich” – today at 4 o’clock in the afternoon I will come.
Sentences with several verbs in German

It is rather easy when there is one subject and one predicate in the sentence. But often there are several. It can be a modal predicate (with one of the modal verbs: “be able”, “want”, etc.):

“Frida möchte heute schwimmen” – Frieda wants to swim today. Formed Verb 1 (want) and 2 (swim). The first is always conjugated, it should be in second place, and the second always remains in the infinitive and is placed at the end of the sentence.

Interesting!

In past tense modal verbs are more often used not in the temporary form Perfekt, but in Präteritum. That is, we use not the third form of the verb (“ge” + “-t”) with the auxiliary verb “haben” or “sein”, but the second form of the verb with the suffix (“-te”).

Formed so-called frame. It occupies the second and last position in the offer, and everything else can move around it.

“Frida möchte heute schwimmen” = “Heute möchte Frida schwimmen”.

The frame can also be formed with a non-modal design. Infinitive revolutions in German are built on the same principle.

“Ich fahre nach Deutschland Deutsch lernen” – I am going to Germany to learn German.

Everything is the same as in Russian. You will not doubt that in the phrase “I am going to Germany to learn German” you have to incline the subject “to go”, and not “to teach”.

Another frame is formed from a verb with a detachable prefix:

“Timo rufst Anton an” – Timo calls Anton (“anrufen” – to call);

“Anna stehst früh auf” – Anna wakes up early (“aufstehen” – wake up).

Everything is identical. We bow the verb, and send the prefix to the end of the sentence.

Please note that the frame should be kept within the bounds of a simple sentence:

“Tina räumt die Wohnung auf und ich kaufe Lebensmittel ein” – Tina cleans the apartment, I buy groceries.

That is, the detachable prefix is ​​not put at the end of the sentence, but at the end of the grammatical basis. When we have a new subject and a new predicate, this is the next frame.
Interrogative sentence in German

We made out how to build a declarative sentence. But besides him there are more interrogative sentences. There are two main types: questions with interrogative words and “Yes / No” questions.

The first ones are built simply – we take one of the interrogative words and habitually put the verb in second place:

Wie ist dein Name? – What is your name?
Wer bist du? – Who are you?
Wohin will er gehen? – Where does he want to go?

To build a “Yes / No” question you need to move the verb from the second place, as in the affirmative sentence, to the first.

Er heißt Jakob – his name is Jacob.

Heißt er Jakob? – his name is Jacob?

Artur kommt aus Hamburg – Arthur from Hamburg.

Kommt Artur aus Hamburg – Arthur from Hamburg?
Imperative in German

In addition to the declarative sentences and questions, there is also an imperative imperative. Here, you guessed it, the word order is also very important.

To form such sentences, we put the verb at the very beginning (as in the question, but speak without interrogative intonation) and express it in imperative form, the rules of its formation differ from different persons:

du (you)

Remove the ending and leave the root:

infinitive – kommen> du kommst> imperative – komm !;

Komm heute zu mir! – come to me today !;

ihr (you)

We leave the ending “t”:

Sprecht lauter! – speak louder!;

Sie (you)

Be sure to use the pronoun “Sie” in the sentence:

Fangen Sie bitte an! – start!
Denial in german language

As in Russian, depending on the position of the particle, it is possible to deny an individual member or an entire sentence.

If the denial concerns