You’ve done the groundwork and memorized enough German words to build your first Germanic sentences, but where does each word go? German sentence structure adheres to a set of consistent rules that allow for less rigid word placement rules in favor of grammatical cases and verb placement when compared to English sentence structure. Once you’re familiar with this set of rules, you’ll find German sentences are not only easy to organize, but also offer you a fair bit of freedom in how you express yourself.
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German word order
The proper German word order for a simple sentence is very similar to English. Think of it as a subject-verb-object (SVO) setup, meaning the subject of the sentence comes first, followed by your verb, and then the object of your sentence toward the end of the expression. If you’re not clear on the difference between a subject and an object, take some time to review the parts of speech in German.
These simple sentence examples show off this SVO framework in German and English:
- Sie haben ein Pferd. = They have a horse.
| Subject | Verb | Article or Possessive | Object |
| Sie | haben | ein | Pferd |
| They | have | a | horse |
- Ich liebe meine Mutter. = I love my mother
| Subject | Verb | Article or Possessive | Object |
| Ich | liebe | meine | Mutter |
| I | love | my | mother |
In all of the above German sentence structures, the subject, which does the action of the sentence, is the first word. The verb, meaning what action the subject is performing, is placed directly after the subject. Lastly, the object of the sentence, which is a noun receiving the action of the sentence, is selected to be the final word.
Subjects and the first position in German sentence structure
For many of your first German statements, your subject will be placed as the very first word. You can identify your subject by asking yourself, “Which person, place, or thing in this sentence is performing the action?” This subject could be a name like Timmy, a German pronoun like Ich (I) or du (you, informal), or a German noun.
- Er kommt aus Deutschland. = He comes from Germany
| First Position | Second Position | Third Position |
| Er | kommt | aus Deutschland |
| He | comes | from Germany |
If there is some other element occupying the first position in your German sentence order, like the word Heute (today) or a prepositional phrase like nach der Schule (after school), then your subject will come immediately after your verb. This word order deviates from what we know in English, so the direct translation requires some shifting words around.
- Manchmal gehe ich früher nach Hause. = Sometimes I leave work early.
| First Position | Second Position | Third Position | Fourth Position |
| Manchmal | gehe | ich | früher nach Hause |
| Sometimes | leave | I | work early. |
Tips for placing German verbs in the second position of a simple sentence
Placing your German verbs in the second position requires thinking in sentence elements instead of thinking of “second position” to always mean “being the second word” of the sentence. The first position of a sentence can be filled by almost any German part of speech, like one or more nouns, a time expression like Morgen (tomorrow), or even an entire prepositional phrase like in dem Winter (in the Winter).
- Der Mann und der Junge trinken Wasser. = The man and the boy are drinking water.
| First Position | Second Position | Third Position |
| Der Mann und der Junge | trinken | Wasser |
| The man and the boy | are drinking | water |
- Im Winter trainieren wir in der Schule. = In winter, we practice at the school.
| First Position | Second Position | Third Position | Fourth Position |
| Im Winter | trainieren | wir | in der Schule |
| In Winter | practice | we | in the school |
Regardless of what fills the first position, your chosen conjugated German verb must come immediately after it for finite verbs. Infinitives, past participles, and separable German verbs, however, will be placed at the end of sentences as you work to form more complex expressions.
Ordering the objects in your German sentences
When ordering multiple objects, meaning nouns that don’t perform the action in a sentence, you get a lot of freedom of placement in the German language’s word order. As long as you have a correctly declined article, possessive pronoun, or adjective before the object, you can plop it almost anywhere in a sentence.
For your first sentence constructions, however, you’ll likely put your dative case object in the third position after the subject and the verb of the sentence. The accusative case object will typically end your sentence in this setup.
Here’s how the order of subject, verb, direct object, and indirect object looks in practice:
- Der Lehrer hat dem Jungen ein Buch gegeben. = The teacher gave the boy a book.
| Subject | Helping Verb | Indirect Object | Direct Object | Main Verb |
| Der Lehrer | hat | dem Jungen | ein Buch | gegeben. |
| The teacher | had | the boy | a book | given. |
- Der Topf ist auf dem Herd rechts neben den Schüsseln. = The pot is on the stove, to the right of the bowls.
| Subject | Verb | Indirect Object | Direct Object |
| Der Topf | ist | auf dem Herd | rechts neben den Schüsseln |
| The pot | is | on the stove | to the right of the bowls. |
German sentence structure’s unique flexibility
German sentence structure does mimic the SVO word ordering of the English language for simple sentences. However, there’s a surprising amount of flexibility German grammar allows you in how you organize your sentence and your objects. Because of the effect that German cases have on parts of speech like articles and adjectives, you’re able to move chunks of your sentence around while still being clear as a bell in your meaning.
Take a look at the sentence below, along with its direct English translation, as we jumble up the word order a bit:
- Der Mann gibt dem Kind den Ball. = The man gives the child the ball.
- Dem Kind gibt der Mann den Ball. = To the child gives the man the ball.
- Den Ball gibt der Mann dem Kind. = The ball is given by the man to the child.
As long as you keep the appropriate article by each noun, these will all be understood by any German-speaking person.
Where articles, adjectives, and possessives belong
Much like in English, your German article or German possessive pronoun will come right before a noun. If you have a German adjective like klein (small) or rot (red), it’ll come between the article or possessive and the noun.
- Der Lehrer arbeitet an der Schule. = The teacher works at the school.
- Mein Hut ist blau. = My hat is blue.
- Der kleine Mann trägt einen Pullover. = The short man wears a sweater.
- Sind Sie hier, um das neue Jahr zu feiern? = Are you here to celebrate the new year?
Declining your articles and possessives in German sentence structure
Special grammar rules in German will have you decline the article or possessive pronoun, meaning they will change their spelling based on things like the grammatical gender of the noun to which they’re attached, if the noun is plural or not, and what German case the noun is in. While the placement of articles and possessives is rather intuitive in German sentence structure, choosing which form to use can take some practice.
Adverbs: time, manner, and place in German word order
You’ll find that German adverbs are often organized in a sentence according to the time-manner-place (TMP) principle. If adjectives describe nouns, think of adverbs as the part of speech that describes anything else, like a verb. Information that tells when something happens typically gets placed first in the sentence, followed by how it happens, and finally where that action takes place.
- Ich lerne heute konzentriert zu Hause. = I am studying with focus at home.
- time: heute (today), manner: konzentriert, place: zu Hause (at home)
- Gestern bin ich mit dem Zug nach Berlin gefahren. = Yesterday, I took the train to Berlin.
- time: Gestern (yesterday), manner: mit dem Zug (took the train), place: nach Berlin (to Berlin)
Create emphasis by moving around your German adverbs
Although the TMP principle is an excellent rule of thumb in German sentence structure, there’s actually no grammatical rule that enforces it as the only way you can order your sentence. This means that, as long as your verb is in the correct location, you can move one of your adverbs to the front of the sentence if you really want to emphasize it.
For example, if you’re taking a beautiful trip through the German countryside and you want to let your German-speaking guide know that you only want to enjoy an ice-cold beer once you reach Berlin, you can change your sentence from the standard TMP setup of:
- Ich will morgen in Berlin Bier trinken. = I want to drink beer tomorrow in Berlin
Move the location element of your sentence to the front and say instead:
- In Berlin will Ich morgen Bier trinken. = In Berlin, I want to drink beer tomorrow.
Setting up a negative statement in German sentence structure
If you want to set up a negative statement and let someone know what isn’t going on, you’ll need to decide on using one of two words: nicht vs. kein, meaning “not any” vs. “not.”
- Use nicht to negate verbs, adverbs, adjectives, or an entire clause.
- Kein is correct when negating a noun with an indefinite article, as in Ich habe keinen Hund (I do not have a dog).
The German sentence structure of statements with kein or nicht follows the rules already discussed for sentences without them. The negation word will often come just before the noun being negated, or toward the end of the sentence, after the objects, but before any final verbs when negating other parts of speech.
- Ich hoffe, wir kommen nicht zu spät. = I hope we are not late.
- Nein, er wurde nicht abgesagt. = No, it has not been cancelled.
- Er liest keinen Roman. = He is not reading a novel.
- Nein, das ist kein Notfall. = No, this is not an emergency.
How to structure a question in German
Structuring a simple question in German is similar to forming a simple statement, but with one change: Your verb will change to the first position, and the subject will swap to the second position. The rest of your sentence remains the same as if the question were a simple statement.
See the examples below comparing questions in German with their statement counterpart to compare how similar the two sentence structures look:
- Liest sie ein Buch? = Is she reading a book? → Sie liest ein Buch. = She is reading a book.
- Brauchen Sie Hilfe? = Do you need help? → Sie brauchen Hilfe. = You need help.
- Haben Sie einen Notfall? = Are you having an emergency? → Sie haben einen Notfall. = You are having an emergency.
Key takeaways about German sentence structure
For your first sentences, you’ll notice a lot of similarities between German sentence structure and English. Here are four key takeaways to remember:
- Simple sentences in German follow a subject-verb-object (SVO) arrangement, with the subject coming first, followed by the verb, and finally the object at the end.
- Basic German questions look similar in word order to statements, but the verb takes position one while the subject takes position two.
- Adverbs follow a time-manner-place structure, with information on time being given up front, the manner being explained secondly, and the place where it all went down being told last.
- German sentence structure allows a fair amount of freedom in more complex sentence structures as long as the verb is in the correct position and each noun’s case is clearly defined.
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