German sentence structure is the structure to which the German language adheres. German is an OV (Object-Verb) language. Additionally, German, like all west Germanic languages except English, uses V2 word order, though only in independent clauses. In dependent clauses, the finite verb is placed last.

Independent clauses

Declarative sentences

Declarative sentences use V2 (verb in the second position) word order: the finite verb is preceded by one and only one constituent (unlike in English, this need not be the subject); in Germanic tradition, the position occupied by this constituent is referred to as the prefield (Vorfeld). Coordinating conjunctions like und ('and') or aber ('but') precede both the prefield and the finite verb, and so do topicalised elements (similarly to "that" in English phrases such as "that I don't know"). The prefield is often used to convey emphasis. ich seh-e den Baum I.NOM see.PRS-1SG the.ACC.SG.M tree.ACC.SG 'I see the tree.' den Baum seh-e ich the.ACC.SG.M tree.ACC.SG see.PRS-1SG I.NOM 'I see the tree.' du siehst den Fluss und ich seh-e den Baum you.SG see.PRS.2SG the.ACC.SG.M river.ACC.SG and I.NOM see.PRS.1SG the.ACC.SG.M tree.ACC.SG 'You see the river, and I see the tree.' Non-finite verbs as well as separable particles are placed at the end of the sentence: 'The King has arrived (lit. "is on-come") at the castle.' der König kam an der Burg an the.NOM.SG.M king.NOM.SG come.PST.3SG at the.DAT.SG.F castle.DAT.SG on 'The King arrived (lit. "on-came") at the castle.' 'The King will arrive (lit. "will on-come") at the castle.' In the midfield (the part of the clause between the position of the finite verb and that of the clause-final verb cluster), German word order is highly variable. Conventional German syntax presents information within a sentence in the following order: Wir gehen am Freitag miteinander ins Kino. Literally, 'We go on Friday together to the movies.' Wegen ihres Jahrestages bereiten wir unseren Eltern einen Ausflug nach München vor. Literally, 'Because of their anniversary plan we our parents a trip to Munich.' In conversational past tense, comparisons can be put after both parts of the verb. So:Er ist größer gewesen als ich. / Er war größer als ich. OREr ist größer als ich gewesen'He was greater than me.' German often structure a sentence according to increasing importance of the phrase towards the conversation. So: Wir gehen am Donnerstag ins Kino. 'We're going to the movies on Thursday.' BUT An welchem Tag gehen wir ins Kino? '(On) What day are we going to the movies?' Am Donnerstag gehen wir ins Kino. 'On Thursday we're going to the movies.'OR Wir gehen am Donnerstag ins Kino. 'We're going on Thursday to the movies.' In ditransitive sentences, pronouns usually go between the verb and all other elements of the sentence: Florian gibt mir morgen das Buch. 'Florian is giving me tomorrow the book.' BUT Florian gibt es mir morgen. 'Florian is giving it to me tomorrow.'

Inversion

An inversion is used to emphasize an adverbial phrase, a predicative, an object, or an inner verbal phrase in a sentence. The subject phrase, at the beginning of an indicative unstressed sentence, is moved directly behind the conjugated verb, and the component to be emphasized is moved to the beginning of the sentence. The conjugated verb is always the second sentence element in indicative statements. Example 1: Example 2: Example 3:

Interrogative sentences

Questions are generally divided into yes–no questions and wh-questions. Specific questions are similar to inverted statements. They begin with a question word, which is followed by the conjugated verb, followed by the subject (if there is one), and then the rest of the sentence.

Yes–no questions

In yes–no questions, V1 (verb-first) word order is used: the finite verb occupies the first position in the sentence; here, there is no prefield. siehst du den Baum see.PRS.2SG you.SG the.ACC.SG.M tree.ACC.SG 'Do you see the tree?' However, conjunctions and topicalised elements still precede the finite verb: aber hast du den Baum ge-seh-en but have.PRS.2SG you.SG the.ACC.SG.M tree.ACC.SG PST.PTCPundefined-see-PST.PTCPundefined 'But have you seen the tree?' den Baum hast du den ge-seh-en the.ACC.SG.M tree.ACC.SG have.PRS.2SG you.SG DEM.ACC.SG.M PST.PTCPundefined-see-PST.PTCPundefined 'The tree, have you seen it?'

Wh questions

Wh questions work in much the same way as they do in English. Like English, German also has Wh-movement: welchen Baum hast du ge-seh-en INTERR.DET.ACC.SG.M tree.ACC.SG have.PRS.2SG you.SG PST.PTCPundefined-see-PST.PTCPundefined 'What tree have you seen?' wohin geh-en wir whither go.PRS-1PL we.NOM 'Where are we going?'

<!--: Du hast deiner Frau einen Ring gekauft. ("You bought your wife a ring.") But the usage of this pronoun implies that the speaker knows both the gender and number of the unknown object. So, practically, you replace these pronouns by short forms. Regardless of whether you use the full pronoun or the short form, the genitive case is practically only used for genitive objects. See [Asking for a possessor](https://bliptext.com/articles/german-sentence-structure). ### Asking for a predicative You ask for a predicative with the either interrogative pronoun Was or, if knowing it is not a nominal phrase, Wie. You can also use other interrogative pronouns like Wo. #### Asking for an adverbial It is possible to ask for the adverbial of a predicative, if it is not a nominal phrase (and even for the adverbial of the adverbial etc.) ### Asking for a possessor When searching for the possessor of a nominal phrase, one first acts as if one would invert the corresponding statement, placing the noun with the unknown possessor at the beginning. Then one gives it the genitive case of the interrogative pronoun (wessen for all cases, genders and numbers). Of course, this nominal phrase may not have a genitive possessor. ### Asking for an adverb First the interrogative pronoun (Wie), then the conjugated verb, next the subject, then the rest of the sentence. If the adverb describes another adverb or an adjective: ### Asking for position or adverbial clause Developing the question for an adverbial phrase may be slightly more complicated. Theoretically, like the other specific questions, the unknown position is inverted to the beginning of the sentence. Whereas the pre- or post- position remains, the nominal part is replaced either by an interrogative pronoun or by a nominal phrase having the interrogative article. Practically, the person asking the question will know neither the gender of the noun, nor the number of the noun, nor even the kind of preposition, before he hears the answer. So a short form is used instead in nearly every case. These short forms are also the only way to ask for an adverbial clause or for a proposition. Some interrogative pronouns: wo, woher, wohin, wann, wieso, weshalb, warum, weswegen.-->

Commands

For commands, the imperative mood is used. Like questions, commands use V1 word order: reich-(e) mir das Salz pass-IMP.SG I.DAT the.ACC.SG.N salt.ACC.SG 'Pass me the salt!' In contemporary German, the imperative singular ending -e is usually omitted. The second-person-singular pronouns du 'you (sg)' and ihr 'you (pl)' are always omitted, except in highly formal or literary language: bring-e du mir das Buch fetch-IMP.SG you.SG I.DAT the.ACC.SG.N book.ACC.SG 'Fetch me the book!' Like in English, nouns or non-finite verb forms can sometimes be used to give commands: Achtung Stufe attention.NOM.SG step.NOM.SG 'Mind the step!' 'Don't forget to dress warmly!'

<!--For a command, take the [imperative](https://bliptext.com/articles/imperative-mood) form of the [conjugated](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammatical-conjugation) verb from the [infinitive](https://bliptext.com/articles/infinitive) and put it at the beginning of the sentence followed by the corresponding personal pronoun. There also must be an exclamation point at the end of the sentence to make it a command. The separable prefix, if there is one, remains at its old place, separated. In the literary language it is possible to leave the verb at the second place. If the verb changes the vowel in the second and third person singular, the vowel is also changed in the second person singular of the imperative. The 2nd person plural pronoun is always omitted. In archaic language, or to emphasize who is ordered for the action, the 2nd person singular pronoun may be left. Note that an "'e"' may be added on to the end of the command form, but only if the verb does not have a stem-change. This is a result of the spoken language and has no difference in meaning. There are no imperative forms for first person plural and second person formal. The first and third person plural of the conditional of the present (this is mostly the same form as the indicative aside from sein 'to be' for which seien is used) is used (but not for tun 'to do' for which tun is used). You must put it to beginning of the sentence, separate the separable prefix before that, and place the personal pronouns wir or Sie directly after it. Note that imperatives must have the same word order as yes/no questions. Actual commands are often given as a simple unconjugated infinitive. This is inevitable in the military (excepting the formal commands Rührt euch and Richt't euch), but is not restricted to it. The military command "Stillgestanden", Freeze!, as well as the everyday expression "Aufgepasst!" (pay attention to that!), oddly even take the perfect participle for an imperative.-->

Dependent clauses

Subordinate clauses use V final word order.

'That' clauses

Using dass 'that': Ich weiß dass er hier ist I.NOM know.PRS.1SG that he.NOM here be.PRS.3SG 'I know that he's here.' wer hat dir erzähl-t dass ich nach England zieh-en werd-e who.NOM have.PRS.3SG you.DAT.SG tell.PST.PTCP that I.NOM to England.NOM move.INF will.PRS.1SG 'Who told you that I'm moving to England?' dass zwei größer als eins ist, ist selbstverständlich that two greater than one be.PRS.3SG be.PRS.3SG obvious 'That two is greater than one is obvious.'

Clauses headed by a subordinator

sie schrieb es nieder sodass sie es nicht vergess-en würd-e she.NOM write.PRET.3SG it.ACC down so.that she.NOM it.ACC not forget.INF will.SUBJII-3SG 'She wrote it down so that she would not forget it.' 'We should hurry so that we arrive in time.' ich helf-e dir weil ich dich mag I.NOM help.PRS-1SG you.SG.DAT because I.NOM you.ACC like.PRS.1SG 'I help you because I like you.'

Relative clauses

There are two varieties of relative clauses. The more common one is based on the definite article der, die, das, but with distinctive forms in the genitive (dessen, deren) and in the dative plural (denen). Historically, this is related to the English that. The second, which is typically used in more literary contexts and used for emphasis, is the relative use of welcher, welche, welches, comparable with English which. As in most Germanic languages, including Old English, both of these varieties inflect according to gender, case and number. They take their gender and number from the noun which they modify, but the case from their function in their own clause. der König der sah den Fluss the.NOM.SG.M king.NOM.SG REL.NOM.SG.M see.PST.3SG the.ACC.SG.M river.ACC.SG 'The king, who saw the river.' das Haus in dem ich wohne ist sehr alt the.NOM.SG.N house.NOM.SG in REL.DAT.SG.N I.NOM live.PRS.1SG be.PRS.3SG very old 'The house in which I live is very old.' The relative pronoun dem is neuter singular to agree with Haus, but dative because it follows a preposition in its own clause. On the same basis, it would be possible to substitute the pronoun welchem. However, German uses the uninflecting was ('what') as a relative pronoun when the antecedent is alles, etwas or nichts ('everything', 'something', 'nothing'.). alles was Jack macht gelingt ihm everything.NOM.SG.N what.ACC.SG Jack.NOM do.PRS.3SG {turn out well.PRS.3SG} 3SG.DAT 'Everything that Jack does is a success.' In German, all relative clauses are marked with commas. Alternatively, particularly in formal registers, participles (both active and passive) can be used to embed relative clauses in adjectival phrases: Unlike English, which only permits relatively small participle phrases in adjectival positions (typically just the participle and adverbs), and disallows the use of direct objects for active participles, German sentences of this sort can embed clauses of arbitrary complexity.

Adverbial clauses

An adverbial clause begins with a conjunction, defining its relation to the verb or nominal phrase described. Some examples of conjunctions: als, während, nachdem, weil.