174 CoH,urusnorus

WORD ORDER
> Here is a ready-reference guide to the key points of German word order.

tr Main clauses
) Inamainclausethesulrjectcomesfirstandisfollowedbytheverb,asinEnglish.
Seine Mutter (subject) rrinkt (verb) H is mother (su bject) drinks (verb)
Whisky. whisky.
> In tenses with more than one verb element, such as the perfect tense and the
passive, the part ofhaben, sein or werden comes after the subject, and the
past participle or inflnitive goes to the end of the clause.
Sie hat mir nichts gesaot. she told me nothing.
Er ist spit ansekommen. He arrived late.
Es wurde fiir ihn oekauft. It was bought for him.
) A d irect ol,:ject usually follows an ind irect object, except where the d irect
object is a personal pronoun.
f ch gab dem Mann (indirect object) I gave the man the monev
das Gefd (direct object).
fch gab ihm (indirect object)das Geld I gave him the money.
(direct object).
BUT
lch gab es (direct object) ihm (indirea I gave it to him.
object).

@ trlotetnattheindirectobjectcanalsobeplacedlastforemphasis,providing
it is NOTa pronoun.
Er gab das Geld seiner Schwester. He gave the money to h is sister.
(not his brother)

9 For more informotion on Direct and lndirea objects, see pages 9 ond 4.
Q For more informotion on lJsing direct and tndireaobjeapronouns, see pogesT4 lnd76.
> As a general rule, adverbs are placed next to the words to which they refer.
o Adverbs of time often comefirst in the clause. butthis is notfixed.
Gestern gingen wir ins Theater
OR
WirgingengesterninsTheater Wewenttothetheatreyesterdav.
o Adverbs of Dlace can also come first in the clause when Vou want to
emphasize something.
Forfurther explanation ofgrammatical terms, please see pages x'xiv. Dort haben sie FuRball gespielt. Thats where they played football.
176 Wono Onoen Wono Onorn r77

o Adverlrs of manner comment on verbs and so are likely to come i mmediately

r asubordinateclause
after the verb theV refer to. Nachdem ich ihn oesehen hatte, I went home after seeing him.
They play footlrall well. ging ich nach Hause.
5ie spielen out FuRball.

. Where there is more than one adverb, a useful rule of thumb is:
"TIME. MANNER, PLACE" tr Subordinate clauses
Wir haben oestern gU! hierhin We found ourwav here all right ) A subordinate clause may be introduced by a relative pronoun (a word such as
gefunden. yesterday. der, die or dessen) or a subordinating conjunction (a word such as da, als or ob).
gestern = adverb of time
gut=adverb ofmanner
Die Kinder, die wir gesehen haben ... The children whom we saw ...

hierhin = adverb ofplace

Da sie nicht schwimmen wollte, ist As she didn't want to swim.
sie nicht mitgekommen. she didn't come.
. lf there is a pronou n object (a word I i ke her, it, me or them) i n the clause,
D The subject follows the conj unction or relative pronoun.
it comes before all adverbs.
Sie haben es gestern sehr billig They bought it very cheaPlY lch weiB nicht, ob er kommt. ldon't know if he's comino.
gekauft. yesterday.
) The main veTbALMOSTALWAYS goes to the end of a subordinate clause
The normal word order in a main clause is subjectfollowed byverb.The subject Als ich nach Hause kam, war ich When lcame home lwas reallv
can be replaced as the first element by any of the words and phrases below. ganz miide. ti red.
ln such cases, the verb is the second element in the clause.
an adverl:
Gestern sind wir insTheater We went to the theatre Yesterday. Grammar b&ra!
gegan9en. The exceptions to this are:

adirect or indirect object o A clause which normally begins with wenn, butfrom which it can be left out.

Seinen Freunden wollte er es nicht He wouldn't show it to his Findest du mein Handy, so ruf mich
friends. bitte an.
zeigen.
INSTEAD OF
an infinitive phrase Wenn du m€in Handy findest, ruf mich lf you find my mobile, please give me
lhren Freunden zu helfen, hat sie She didn'ttrv to help herfriends. bitte an. a call.
nicht versucht.
. Indirectspeech withouttheconjunction dass(meaningthat).
another noun or pronoun Sie meint, sie werde es innerhalb einer
Deine Schwester war es. It was your sister. Stunde schaffen.
Sie war es. It was her. INSTEAD OF
Sie meint, dass sie es innerhalb einer 5he thinks (that) she will manage it
a past particiPle Stunde schaffen wird. inside an hour.
Geraucht hatte er nie' He had never, ever smoKed.

r a phrase with a PrePosition

Welt was born in this house. D Therulesapplyingtotheorderofarticles,nouns,adjectives,adverbs,direct
ln diesem Haus bin ich auf die I
and indirect o[:jects are the same in subordinate clauses as in main clauses,
gekommen.
EXCEPT that all these words are placed between the su bject oFthe clause and
o a clause which acts as the object of the verlr the relevant verb part.
Was mit ihm los war, haben wir nie We neverfound out what was
herausgefunden. wrong with him.

Forfurther explanation ofgrammatical terms, Please see pages x-xiv'

178 Wono Onosn
MAIN CLAUSE:
went into town with her
N EGATIVES
Sie ist gestern mit ihrer Mutter in die she
Stadt gefahren. mother yesterdaY.

SUBORDINATE CLAUSE: What is a negative?

Da sie gestern mit ihrer Mutter in die Since she went into town with A negative question or statement is one which contains a word such as not,
Stadt gefahren ist' her mother YesterdaY. neveror nothing and is used to saythatsomething is not happening, is nottrue
or is absent.

rtp Ll-l Using neoatives

Therule"time,manner,place"appliesequallytosubordinateclauses'
D I n Engl ish we use words I i ke not, no, nothing and never to show a negative.
EXCEPTthat the verb goes to the end.
l'm notvery pleased.
* For more information on suborilinote clduses, see page 193'
Dan never rang me.
Nothing ever happens herel
There's no milk left.
}Wordorderintheimperative,indirectandindirectspeechandinverbswith > In Cerman, ifyou want to make something negative, you generally add nicht
separable prefixes is covered i n the relevant chapters: (mean ing nof) or nie (meaning never) next to the ph rase or word referred to,

Q For more informotion on the tmperotive, see page to5' lch will nicht mitgehen. I don't want to come.

4 For more information on Direct and lndirefr speech, see

page n9 ' Sie ftihrt nie mit ans Meer. She never comes with us to the
plge rcg' seaside.
Q For more i nformation on Verbs with separoble prefixes, see
> Here is a list of the other common Cerman negatives:
o nein (meaning no)
Nein, ich habe keine Zeit. No, I don't have any time.
. nichts (meaning nothing)
sie hat nichts damit zu tun. She has nothing to do with it.
o nicht mehr(meaningnot. ... ony more, no longer)
lch rauche nicht mehr. I don't smoke any more/
I no longer smoke.
Sie geht nicht mehr hin. She doesn't go any more
@ ruote that nicht and mehr always appear next to each other.
kein (meaning none)
Keiner meiner Freunde wollte None of my friends wanted
kommen. to come.
Wo ist die Milch? - Es ist keine Where is the milk? -There is
mehr da. none left.

rtp
Nicht applies to verbs. Remem ber that when you want to make a
negative statement about a noun, you must use kein. lfyou want to say
I don't drink milkany more,you would say lch trinke keine Milch mehr.

Forfurther explanation ofgrammatical terms, please see Pages x-xlv'

t80 Necnrtves Necnrrves t8t

+ Formore information on the lndeftnite article in negotive sentences and on tndefinite

You can change the emphasis in a sentence by moving the position
For example, nie can be placed at the
ofthe negative.
start ofthe sentence. The subject and verb
pronouns, see poges 36 and 82.
then swap positions.
o niemand (meaning nobody ot no one) Nie waren sie gliicklicher gewesen. They had never been happier.
Es war niemand im Biiro. There was nobody in the office' Nie im Leben hatte er so etwas Never in his life had he seen such
gesehen. thing.
+ For more informotion on lndefinite pronouns, see page 82.
nicht comes at the end of a negative
a

imperative, except if the verb is separabre,

o nirgendwo or nirgends (meaning nowhere ' not . ' . lnvwhere) in which case it comes before the separable prefix.
Nirgends sonst gibt es so sch6ne Nowhere else will You find such
lss das nicht! Don't eat that!
Blumen. beautiful flowers.
Setzen 5ie sich nicht! Don't sit downl
Hier gibts nirqendwo ein There isn'ta swimming Pool
BUT
Schwimmbad. anywhere here.
Geh nichtweg! Don't go away!
o weder noch (meanin g neither of two things)
> nicht+ the indefinite article ein is usually replaced byforms of kein.
Karotten oder Erbsen? - Carrots or peas? -
Gibt es keine PlEtzchen? Aren't there any biscuits?
Weder noch, danke. Neither, thanks.
Kein einziger Student hatte die Not a single student had done
o weder ... noch (meaning neither ... nor) Arbeit gemacht. the work.
wedersabinanocholiverkommen Neithersabinanoroliverare' 9 For more information on the lndefinite orticle, see page 3s-
zur Party. coming to the Party'
L To contradicta negative statement, doch is used instead ofja, to mean yes.
* f or more informotion on Co-ordinating coniunctionswithtttto ports, see page Vo.
Du kommst nicht mit. - Doch, You're not comino. -Yes I am
o ... auch nicht(meaningneither have I, nor does he, nor orewe etc) ich komme mit.
lchmagihnnicht.-lchauchnichtl ldon'tlikehim'-Neitherdol! Das ist nicht wahr. - Doch! That isn't truel - yes it is!
Er war noch nie im SPanien. - He's never been to Spain. - D nicht ... sondern (meaning not ... but) is used to correct a wrong idea or false
Sie auch nicht! Neither has she! impression.
Nicht Susi, sondern ihr Bruder It wasn't susi. it was her brother.
Word orderwith negatives war es.
A
)> In a sentence the present tense, nicht and nie
with only one verb Part, such as
usuallv come directly after the verb. However, in direct questions, the negative
word comes after the subject.
Du arbeitest nicht. You're notworking.
BUT
Arbeitest du nicht? Aren'tyou working?

I sentence with two verb parts, such as the perfect tense and the passive,
na
the part ofhaben, sein or werden comes after the subject and the negative
word usuallV comes directly before the past participle or infinitive. The position
ofthe negative doesn't change in direct questions.
5ie haben es nicht gemacht. You haven't done it.
Haben sie es nicht gemacht? Haven'tyou done it?

For further explanation ofgrammatical term5, Please see pages x-xiv'

 Quesnorus r83

E Askinq a question bv usinq a question word

ESTIONS
D A question word is a word like when or how that is used to ask for information.
In Cerman, these words are a mixture of interrogative adverbs, pronouns and
What is a question? adjectives. Listed below are the most common question words:
A question is a sentence which is used to ask someone about something and
wie?(how?) wo? (where?) wem?(whom?)
which in English normally has the verb in front of the subject. Question words
was? (whdt?) welcher?(which?) wessen?(whose?)
such as why, where,who,which or how are also used to ask a question.
wann? (when?) wer? (who?) warum?(whyl)

@ trtote that wer means who, NOTwhere.

How to ask a question in German D When questions are formed with interrogative adverbs like wann, wo, wie and

tr The basic rules warum, normalword order changes and the subject and verb swap places.
Wann ist er gekommen? When did he come?
> There are three ways of asking d irect q uestions in German:
Wo willst du hin? Where are you off to?
o bychanging round theorderofwords in a sentence
Wie haben Sie das gemacht? How did you do that?
o by adding nicht, nicht wahr, oder or doch (meaning isn't it) to a sentence
Warum ist sie so spit aufgestanden? Why did she get up so late?
o by using a question word

tr Asking a question by chanqino word order Ttp

) Many questions are formed in German by si mply chang ing the normal word order Rememberto use woherand wohin when direction is involved.
ofa sentence. You swap round the subject and verb, and add a question mark.
Woher kommst du? Where do you come from?
Magst (verb) d u (subject) ihnl DoVou like him?
Wohin fahren Sie? Where areyou going?
Gehst(verb)du (subject) ins Kino? Do you go to the cinema? OR
Are you going to the cinema?

> In tenses with more than one verb, such as the perfect tense and the passive, When questions are formed with interrogative pronouns and adjectives,
the part ofhaben, sein or werden comes BEFORE the subject, and the past word order is normal if the interrogative pronoun or adjective is the subject
participle or infinitive goes to the end of the clause. ofthe verb at the beginning ofthe clause.
Haben Sie es gesehen? Did you see it? Wer (subject) hat (verb) das gemacht? Who d id that?
lfthe interrogative pronoun or adjective is NOT the subject ofthe verb at the
tr Asking a question by adding nicht, nicht wahr. oder or doch
beginning ofthe clause, the subject and verb swap places.
> Astatementcan be made intoaquestion byadding nicht, nichtwahr, oderor Wem hast (verb) du (subject) es Who did you give itto?
doch, inthesamewayasisn'tit, won'tVou etc isadded in English.You'd normally geschenkt?
expect the answer to such questions to be a simple yes or no.
Das stimmt, nicht wahr? That's true, isn't it? Q For more information on tnterrogotive pronouns and Adjeaives, see plges 89 ond 3t

Das Essen istfertig, nicht? The food's readv, isn't it?

@ ruote tnat in indirect questions, that is questions following verbs of asking
Sie machen das, oder? They'll do it, won't they? andwondering, the verb comes at the end ofthe question.
Das schaffst du doch? You'll manage, won't youT
Sie fragte, ob du mitkommen She asked if you wanted to come.
D When a question is put in the negative, doch can be used to answer it more wolltest.
positively than ja.
Glaubst du mir nicht? - Doch! Don't you believe me? -Yes, I do!

Forfurther explanation ofgrammatical terms, please see Pages x-xiv.