German Sentence Structure Explained [Everything You Need To Know]

In this post we will cover everything you need to know about German sentence structure. You will learn the rules for German sentence structure, how to form a sentence using the past tense, how to structure questions and what happens to the sentence structure when we introduce certain conjunctions such as weil (because) or dass (that).

This can be a complicated subject for beginners, but believe me that once you learn the rules, you’ll be able to form sentences like a pro. In this post we will start from the very beginning, then gradually add elements which change the basic structure.

There’s a lot to get through, so let’s get started, auf geht’s!

Basic German Sentence Structure

In German, the basic sentence structure is the same as in English. Both languages use the ‘subject verb object’ (SVO) structure. Let’s take a look at an example sentence:

Subject	Verb	Object
Ich	esse	Pizza.
I	eat / am eating	pizza.

In fact, this basic structure is used whenever only one verb is present. The structure follows:

Subject + Verb + The Rest

Subject (Position 1)	Verb (Position 2)	Object (The Rest)
Der Mann	sieht	den Hund.
The man	sees	the dog.

Now let’s add some more information to this basic sentence. Before we do this though, we need to learn another rule:

Let’s look at some example sentences using both rule 1 and rule 2:

Subject (Pos. 1)	Verb (Pos. 2)	Time	Manner	Place
Ich	fahre			zum Flughafen.
Er	trifft	um 18 Uhr	seine Freunde.
Sie	gehen	am Montag		in den Park.

Hopefully you can see from these examples that not all 3 elements of Time Manner and Place need to be present for the sentence to make sense. But the correct word order is followed:

Subject (position 1) + Verb (position 2) + Time + Manner + Place

German sentence structure is very flexible, so sometimes you will see the time element moved to the beginning of the sentence. We actually do this in English as well. We can say ‘I go to the gym on Wednesdays’ or ‘On Wednesdays I go to the gym’.

In German however we must always refer back to rule 1: The conjugated verb always goes in position 2. This means we end up with a slightly different word order to what we have in English.

Time (Pos. 1)	Verb (Pos. 2)	Subject	Place
Mittwochs	gehe	ich	ins Fitnessstudio.
On Wednesdays	go	I	to the gym.

So now we have the following structure, with the verb still correctly in position 2:

Time (position 1) + Verb (position 2) + Subject + Manner + Place

If we want to introduce 2 more objects (1 direct object and 1 indirect object) to the sentence, we stick with the usual subject in position 1, verb in position 2 rule.

Subject (Pos. 1)	Verb (Pos. 2)	Indirect Object	Direct Object
Ich	gebe	dem Lehrer	das Buch.
I	give	the teacher	the book.

Subject (position 1) + Verb (position 2) + Indirect Object + Direct Object

If we are using a separable verb such as ankommen (to arrive) the prefix, an-, is always separated and goes to the very end of the sentence.

Subject (Pos. 1)	Verb (Pos. 2)	Time	Place	Prefix
Ich	komme	um 10 Uhr	am Bahnhof	an.

Subject (position 1) + Verb (position 2) + Other Info + Prefix

The take away for this part is that the conjugated verb stays in position 2, no matter what. If a separable verb is used, the prefix is separated and goes to the end of the sentence.

German Sentences with 2 Verbs

So now we have the basic German sentence structure sorted, let’s see what happens when we introduce a second verb. It’s very common to find two verbs in a sentence. Sometimes these are two ordinary verbs, but we’ll also encounter this when we use a modal verb, which always requires a second verb.

For this we need to learn a third rule:

Let’s take a look at an example sentence to make this clear:

Subject (Pos. 1)	Conj. Verb (Pos. 2)	Other Info	Unconj. Verb (The End)
Ich	gehe	in den Laden, um Brot zu	kaufen.
I	am going	to the shop, bread	to buy.

You can see that we’re getting a bit further away from English sentence structure. But the important thing is we are following rules 1 and 3. The Time Manner Place rule 2, is still followed, it is grouped with ‘Other Info’ and goes after ‘Position 2’ and before ‘The End’.

Subject (pos. 1) + Conj. Verb (pos. 2) + Other Info + Unconj. Verb (The End)

Subject (Pos. 1)	Conj. Verb (Pos. 2)	Other Info (time) (manner) (place)	Unconj. Verb (The End)
Ich	treffe	mich heute mit meinen Freunden zum	schwimmen.
Der Mann	muss	um 15 Uhr, zum Zahnarzt	gehen.

We also encounter this when using the future tense, since we’ll use the verb werden plus the main verb.

Subject (Pos. 1)	Conj. werden Verb (Pos. 2)	Other Info	Unconj. Main Verb (The End)
Ich	werde	ins Kino	gehen.
Meine Mutter	wird	am Montag in den Urlaub	fahren.

In the case of separable verbs, these are not separated when used with a modal verb. Instead we conjugate the modal verb and put it in position 2, and the unconjugated, unseparated separable verb goes to the end:

Subject (Pos. 1)	Conj. Modal Verb (Pos. 2)	Other Info	Unconj. Sep. Verb (The End)
Sie	sollte	um 9 Uhr	abreisen.
She	should	at 9am	depart / leave.

The Past Tense

In order to form the past tense (known as the perfect tense) we need to use an auxiliary verb, either haben or sein, plus the past tense of the main verb. The rules for forming the perfect tense are quite simple:

Let’s take a look at some example sentences:

Subject (Pos. 1)	Conj. Auxiliary Verb (Pos. 2)	Other Info	Past Tense Main Verb (The End)
Ich	habe	das Buch	gelesen.
Die Freunde	haben	sich am Samstagabend	getroffen.
Meine Schwester	ist	um 8 Uhr auf dem Flughafen	angekommen.

So we have the following sentence structure:

Subject (pos. 1) + Conj. Auxiliary Verb (pos. 2) + Other Info + Past Tense Main Verb

Question Structure in German

So far we have seen the conjugated verb stuck firmly in position 2. But from now on we are going to make a few exceptions for this rule.

Here are a few example questions:

Verb (Pos. 1)	Subject (Pos. 2)	Other Info
Fährst	du	oft nach Deutschland?
Kennt	ihr	meinen Freund?

Conjugated Verb (pos. 1) + Subject (pos. 2) + Other Info

If we are using two verbs in the question, we use the same structure as previously learned for 2 verbs, except the verb and subject follow the new question sentence structure rule 5.

Conj. Verb (Pos. 1)	Subject (Pos. 2)	Other Info	Unconj. Verb (The End)
Hast	du	mein Buch	gelesen?
Sind	Sie		angekommen?

Conjugated Verb (pos. 1) + Subject (pos. 2) + Other Info + Unconj. Verb

If we want to form a question with a question word (such as why, who, what) the conjugated verb goes back to it’s favourite spot in position 2. The question word takes position 1 and the subject takes position 3.

Question Word (Pos. 1)	Conj. Verb (Pos. 2)	Subject (Pos. 3)	The Rest	Unconjugated Verb (The End)
Woher	kommen	Sie?
Warum	bist	du	noch zu Hause?
Wohin	bist	du	dieses Jahr	gefahren?

Question Word (pos. 1) + Conj. Verb (pos. 2) + Subject (pos. 3) + The Rest + Unconj. Verb

How a Conjunction Affects Sentence Structure

So far we have learned some simple rules for forming German sentence structure. The conjugated verb always goes in position 2 and the subject goes in position 1, unless we are asking a yes / no question. If there is further information that goes next. Lastly, if there is a second verb, that remains unconjugated (in the infinitive form) and goes right to the end.

We are now going to introduce some conjunctions such as aber (but), und (and), oder (or). These 3 common conjunctions don’t affect the sentence structure.

Subject (Pos. 1)	Verb (Pos. 2)	Other Info
Ich	nehme	Kaffee und Kuchen.
Ich	mag	das blaue Auto, aber auch das rote.

However, because this is German, there are some more exceptions. Certain conjunctions cause the conjugated verb to move from it’s usual position 2, to the very end of the sentence. Here are some basic conjunctions to watch out for:

• weil = because
• dass = that
• ob = if / whether

There are many more, but to keep things simple let’s focus on these 3 for now. These type of conjunctions are known as subordinating conjunctions. The sentence starts with the ‘main clause’ then when a subordinate conjunction is used, it introduces the ‘subordinate clause’. Effectively, the sentence is broken into two parts. Here is an example:

Subject (Pos. 1)	Verb (Pos. 2)	Other Info	Conjunction (Pos. 1)	Subj. (Pos. 2)	Other Info	Conj. Verb (The End)
Ich	trinke	einen Kaffee,	weil	ich	Durst	habe.
I	drink	a coffee	because	I	thirst	have.

Main Clause	Subordinate Clause
Ich trinke einen Kaffee,	weil ich Durst habe.

You can see in this example, because the subordinate conjunction weil, has been used, we now have two parts to the sentence, the main clause and the subordinate clause. The two clauses are treated like separate sentences and separated with a comma (,).

The main clause keeps the normal sentence structure rules:

Subject (pos. 1) + Verb (pos. 2) + Other Info

The subordinate clause has a different structure:

Conjunction (pos. 1) + Subject (pos. 2) + Other Info + Conjugated Verb (The End)

This is a complicated concept to get your head around, trust me, it took me ages to be able to form subordinating clauses correctly. Let’s take a look at another example. Remember main clause and subordinate clause.

Subject (Pos. 1)	Verb (Pos. 2)	Conjunction (Pos. 1)	Subj. (Pos. 2)	Other Info	Conj. Verb (The End)
Ich	glaube,	dass	er	jetzt bei der Arbeit	ist.
I	believe	that	he	at work now	is.

Subject + Verb + Conjunction + Subject + Other Info + Conjugated Verb

Main Clause	Subordinate Clause
Ich glaube,	dass er jetzt bei der Arbeit ist.

So now we know that if we use dass, ob or weil in a sentence we treat everything after that conjunction as a new part of the sentence, the subordinate clause, and the conjugated verb goes to the end. But what happens if we have 2 verbs after the conjunction, in the subordinate clause?

Subject	Verb	Other Info	Conjunction	Subj.	Other Info	2nd Verb	Main Verb
Ich	weiß	nicht,	ob	ich	Deutsch oder Französisch	lernen	soll.
I	know	not	if	I	German or French	learn	should.

You can see in this example, the main clause is structured as normal. Then we use the conjunction ob (if / whether). This begins the subordinate clause which means the conjugated (main) verb needs to go to the end of the sentence.

Without the conjunction, the sentence would be ich soll Deutsch oder Franösisch lernen. The main verb soll is in position 2. But because the conjunction ob appears before it, the main verb moves from position 2, to the very end.

Other than that, normal structure rules apply. The second verb, the unconjugated one (lernen), goes to the end of the sentence as normal. But because we have used ob, the conjugated verb (soll) goes right to the very end of the sentence.

Main Clause	Conjunction (Pos. 1)	Subj. (Pos. 2)	Other Info	Unconj. Verb	Conj. Verb (The End)
Ich weiß nicht,	ob	ich	Deutsch oder Französisch	lernen	soll.

Main Clause + Conjunction + Subject + Other Info + Unconj. Verb + Conj. Verb

You can read my in depth post about German subordinate clauses here.

The Rules for German Sentence Structure in a Nutshell

That was a lot to get through, and if you made it this far gut gemacht (well done!). Let’s have a quick review of what we have learnt in this post.

• Rule 1: The conjugated verb nearly always goes in position 2
• Rule 2: Time Manner Place – keeps extra information in a logical order
• Rule 3: 2 Verbs – the conjugated verb goes in position 2, the second verb is unconjugated (infinitive form) and goes to the end of the sentence
• Rule 4: Past Tense – the auxiliary verb (haben or sein) is conjugated and goes in position 2, the other main verb is unconjugated and in past tense form and goes to the end
• Rule 5: Yes / No Question – the verb moves to position 1, the subject takes position 2
• Rule 6: Conjunctions – certain conjunctions such as ob, dass and weil cause the conjugated verb to be sent to the very end of the sentence

Final Thoughts

When you’re first starting out, German sentence structure can seem intimidating. It can differ quite a bit from what we are used to in English. My best advice is to become familiar with the 6 rules in this post. Start by forming basic sentences which have the same structure as English. Add a little more detail and remember the Time Manner Place order.

Try introducing a second verb, and get used to that verb going right to the end of the sentence. You will become better and better at using 2 verbs if you use the past tense.

In order to get used to the structure, I would suggest starting a journal in German. Practice writing sentences about what you plan to do that day, or what you have done in the past. Writing everything down gives you time to process what you have learned, check that you have followed the correct sentence structure and will build confidence. Then you can move on to speaking with a language partner.

I’ve been in the same position you are in now. I still struggle to remember which verb I need to put at the end of a sentence. It can be daunting, but with writing practice, learning the rules and being patient, you will get there. Good luck!