This “verb comes second” rule still very much applies if you add in a little adverb phrase to spruce up the start of your sentence. (We’re eating the cake.)ĭas Buch lese ich. The most important part of German word order is that the verb will always come in the second position in the sentence: In German, it’s common to switch the Subject and Object positions in the sentence depending on the information you want to emphasize. Here we have the object ( Den Film), then the verb ( kenne) and then the subject ( ich nicht). However, you’ll likely see another word order as well: Object + Verb + Subject.ĭen Film kenne ich nicht. So the subject ( Ich) does an action ( werfe) to an object ( den Ball).

In simple German sentences, you may see the same word order as English: Subject + Verb + Object.

This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. In this post, we’re going to focus on the content of what we want to say, and how to say it in correct German word order.īy the end, you’ll be more comfortable with German sentence structure so you can turn your thoughts into coherent sentences! While learning German grammar does involve some classic textbook-style work and memorization, it doesn’t always transfer smoothly to forming sentences on your own. ApGerman Sentence Structure: The Ultimate Guide to German Word OrderĪs a German learner, you might feel that anything other than the simplest of sentences requires some serious forethought.

German modal verbs exercises pdf