Word order in german language

Welcome Today we will talk about a difficult topic, the knowledge of which is the alpha and omega of a German learner. This is the word order.

Word order is kept very strictly. His violation is a gross grammatical mistake. The verb in the sentence always comes in second place.

“Ich esse eine Banane” – I eat a banana;

“Du kaufst Milch und ich kaufe Salz” – you buy milk, I buy salt;

The subject does not have to be in the first place. The word order can change, but the verb always remains in second place! If you do not put the subject in the first place, then you need to put it immediately after the verb.

“Ich gehe morgen ins Kino” – I am going to the cinema tomorrow;

“Morgen gehe ich ins Kino”;

“Ins Kino gehe ich 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.

It is necessary to understand that by one “place”, either “position” is meant a word, or phrases that answer one question. Thus, in the above example, the construction “Heute um 4 Uhr am Nachmittag” answers the one question – “when?”, Therefore, occupies one position.

The verb in the sentence is not always the same. It can be a modal predicate (with one of the modal verbs: “be able”, “want”, etc.):

“Ich möchte heute schwimmen” – I want to swim today. The verb 1 (I want) and the verb 2 (swim) are formed. Verb 1 is always conjugated, it should be in second place, and verb 2 always remains in the infinitive and is put at the end of the sentence.

Formed so-called frame. She takes the second and last position in the offer, and everything else can move around her.

“Ich möchte heute schwimmen” = “Heute möchte ich schwimmen”.

You would say the same in Russian! Decline only the verb “want”: “(I) want,” would put it in second place, and the verb “swim” would put in the end and left in the infinitive: “I want to swim today.” Only in German, this sentence can only be changed to “I want to swim today”.

The frame can also be formed with non-modal design. This is the same as in the previous case, not with the modal verb, but with any other:

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

Verb 1 in second place, it is conjugated, and verb 2 in last place and in the infinitive. Everything is the same as in Russian. You will not doubt that in the phrase “I am going to Germany to learn German,” you must incline the verb “to go,” and not “to teach.”

A frame is also formed when there is a stable phrase:

“Robert hört am Morgen Musik” = “Am Morgen hört Robert Musik” – Robert listens to music in the morning. Thus, we got a frame from the phrase “Musik hören”, although there is only one verb in it, it will bend, and will be in second place, and the word “Musik” at the end.

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

“Ich rufe Anton an” – I call Anton (“anrufen” – to call);

“Du stehst früh auf” – you wake 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 does not go to the very end of the sentence, but to the end of the grammatical basis. When we have a new subject and a new predicate, this is the next frame.

Then you learn in what situations the order of words changes, but first you need to understand the frame of a simple declarative sentence.