Unions in german language

The topic that many of you have already come across is in German unions. It is not difficult, but many points require more detailed consideration.

Let’s start with four unions that connect two equally important main sentences (Hauptsatz): “aber” (“but”), “denn” (“since”), “und” (“and”), “oder” (“or” ).

Ich trinke Kaffee nicht, aber Tee trinke ich gerne – I don’t drink coffee, but I drink tea with pleasure;
Ich trinke nur Tee und du trinkst nur Kaffee – I drink only tea, you drink only coffee;
Ich trinke kein Kaffee, denn ich habe Allergie gegen Koffein – I do not drink coffee because I am allergic to caffeine;
Trinkst du Tee oder möchtest du lieber Kaffee? – do you drink tea or do you want more coffee?

These alliances, as you noticed, do not change the word order. That is, we have two equivalent sentences. In the first of them the verb is predicate in second place, in the second also in second place. In the last example, the verb comes first because we have an interrogative sentence. And in the interrogative verb is always in the first place.

The next group of unions is unions that combine equivalent main sentences, but change the order of words: “deshalb” (“therefore (for this reason)”), “sonst” (“otherwise”), “dann” (“then”), “Danach” (“after this”).

Er hat keine Zeit, deshalb kocht er nie – he has no time, so he never cooks;
Komm zu mir, sonst bin ich allein – come to me, otherwise I will be alone;
Zuerst essen wir, dann (danach) gehen wir ins Kino – first we eat, then (after this) we go to the movies.

These unions occupy the first position, therefore, the verb is placed immediately after them.

And the last possible group of unions is the unions that connect the main clause (Hauptsatz) and the subordinate clause (Nebensatz): “weil” (“because”), “dass” (“what”), “wenn” (“when” ). In this case, the declined verb moves to the end of the subordinate clause.

Er kocht nie, weil er keine Zeit hat – he never cooks because he has no time;
Ich hoffe, dass du heute zu mir kommst – I hope that you will come to me today;
Wir gehen ins Kino, wenn du sagst – we will go to the movies when you say.

Once again, all unions are divided into three groups: those that join the two main sentences and occupy the zero position in the sentence, those that join the two main sentences and occupy the first position in the sentence (the declined verb immediately follows them) and those that join the main sentence and subordinate, then the verb goes to the end of the sentence.

Then we will talk in more detail about all these unions, because there are much more of them than we mentioned today. Here you can find a complete list of alliances and allied words.