In the first sentence, the position of the word “ jedoch ” puts much more emphasis on the control he has over his anger. → Er war verärgert, er zeigte es jedoch nicht. → Er war verärgert, jedoch zeigte er es nicht. The emphasis of the word can change depending on what position it occupies in the sentence: “ Jedoch” is generally a stronger word than “ doch” and can be used to add emphasis.If you want to start a sentence explaining a reason you have to use “ weil”. A “ denn”- clause can never be at the beginning of a sentence. “ weil”: both words explain a causality and provide a reason, but there is one significant difference between them - they require a different word order. “ Aber” can be preceded by a negation, but it doesn’t have to be.The word “ sondern” must be preceded by a negation.The difference between the words “ sondern” and “ aber” is that you use “ sondern” where you’d use “but rather” (meaning: instead) in English.The phrase “ nicht nur” is always followed by “ sondern auch”.A few other helpful tips on German coordinating conjunctions: Here the conjugated verb (“schreiben” - “sie schreibt”) is in position two, meaning in the second “slot” of the sentence linked to the first one with a coordinating conjugation. “ Sie ist nicht nur Mutter von drei Kindern, sondern schreibt auch Kinderbücher.”

When it comes to the position of the conjugated verb in a coordinating conjunction, the verb will be in the second position: This means that both parts of the coordinated sentence act as independent sentences (which have been linked together) and their structure is not affected. But whatever helps, right?)īuilding this kind of memory hooks is essential-especially when learning German conjunctions.Īfter a coordinating conjunction, you will continue with the same word order as in the previous sentence. Also, you will have the song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. (I can guarantee you it is very effective. I like drawing and painting.įun fact: The Linguistic Society of America at the University of Michigan suggests that in order to memorize some of the German coordinating conjunctions, you can sing them to the music of “ Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees. (In this case, the word “sie” is put in parentheses since you can technically leave it out )Įr wurde nach Hause geschickt, denn er war krank. She is not only a mom of three, but she writes children’s books as well. Sie ist nicht nur Mutter von drei Kindern, sondern schreibt auch Kinderbücher. Andy is very intelligent, but he just doesn’t have any ambition. Let me give you some examples of German coordinating conjunctions!Īndy ist sehr intelligent, aber er hat einfach keinen Ehrgeiz. If you stumble upon the words listed above in a sentence, you know that these coordinating conjunctions link two sentences of equal importance together.īecause conjunctions (coordinating as well as subordinating) explain correlations between two sentences and/or determine relations between two (or more) statements, it is very important that you familiarize yourself with the meaning of each specific conjunction. If you encounter the following expressions, you can be sure that you are dealing with a coordinating conjunction. Let’s have a closer look at these two types of German conjunctions! Coordinating conjunctions in GermanĪs already stated, coordinating conjunctions in the German language do not affect the verb (or its position). Subordinating conjunctions affect the structure of the sentence by changing the position of the verb while coordinating conjunctions leave the position of the verb unchanged. There are two types of German conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. In this post, we’re going to have a closer look at the magic that is German conjunctions! Types of German Conjunctions So what are those magic words that let us link together two different statements or explain causalities?Īnd just like in any other language, German conjunctions are a vital part of the German language. These words allow us to construct long and complicated sentences instead of only communicating with short and simple ones like “I like drawing. What do all these sentences have in common? If you take a closer look at the way these statements are structured, you will see that all of these are held together by words like but, because, and or therefore. “He didn’t study very hard and therefore he failed his classes.”.“I had to go home because I wasn’t feeling well.”.“This dress is so pretty, but it’s just a little bit too short.”.

Imperative german grammar