Longer Sentences in German? Conjugation... Part 3

Hello and good day to you all! Did you have a good morning? Are you getting outside and getting that vitamin D from the sun? I hope you are healthy and ready for part 3 of our conjurations! First, let's do a small recap of what we've done in part 1 and part 2.

In Part 1 of Conjunctions, we spoke about coordinating conjunctions which allow you to combine two sentences with und, oder, aber, dann, sondern or doch. With these sentences, you follow the normal sentence structure with the verb in 2nd position for both of them as seen below:

Coordinating Conjunction Example

(verb 2nd position for both)

Ich esse fish und du trinkst Milch. (I eat fish and you drink milk.)

In Part 2 of Conjunctions we learned about subordinating conjunctions which combine two sentences with words like weil, wenn, während, seit, bevor, obwohl and damit. In this situation, one sentence depends on the other and with this, comes a new grammar rule where the verb of the dependent (aka subordinate) sentence has the verb go to the end of the sentence like:

Subordinating Conjunction Example 1

(verb in the end for subordinating sentence)

Ich tanze zu Hause, weil ich alleine bin. (I dance at home because I am alone.)

Subordinating Conjunction Example 2

(with the subordinating sentence first, you also have the verb in 1st position for the main sentence)

Weil ich alleine bin, tanze ich zu Hause,  (Because I am alone, I dance at home.)

Now let's go into the third type... conjunctional adverbs or Konjunktionaladverbien in German. We know that conjunctions combine two sentences together, and in the case with these conjunctional adverbs, the sentence with the adverb will have the verb come directly after the adverb or before the subject. Let's look at some examples below.

Ich gehe spazieren, danach esse ich ein Eis.

(I go walking, then I eat an ice cream.)

Unsplash images from: tylernixcreative.com and instagram.com/ross_sokolovski

A question I asked myself is, "Can I reverse the sentences like I did with the other conjunctions?" The answer is naja (yes/no). If you want to have the conjunctional adverb in the beginning of the sentence, you would need to separate the sentences, and still have the order of sentences remain the same. Our earlier sentence would become:

Ich gehe spazieren. Danach esse ich ein Eis.

(I go walking. Then I eat an ice cream.)

The order is the same, but danach is no longer conjunctional, and just becomes an adverb as it is not combining two sentences together. Let's take a look at other examples.

verb in 2nd position , conjunctional adverb  verb in '1st position'  ... .

• Affen sind süß, außerdem sind sie auch intelligent.
(Monkeys are cute, furthermore they are also intelligent.)

• Er geht aus dem Haus, dabei sind Zombies draußen!
(He goes out the house, despite -strangely/weirdly- Zombies are outside.)

• Am Morgen habe ich mich geduscht, danach habe ich gefrühstückt.
(In the morning I took a shower, afterwards/then I had breakfast.)

• Wir haben einen Film gesehen, dann haben wir uns verabschiedet.
(We saw a film, then we said goodbye.)

• Wir können den Haifischflosse sehen, deshalb gehen wir nicht ins Wasser.
(We can see the shark fin, that's why/because of it/therefore we don't go into the water.)

• Die Schüler hören im Unterricht nicht zu, folglich lernen die Schüler nicht.
(The students are not listening in class, consequently the students are not learning.)

• Jetzt dürfen wir uns nicht in großen Gruppen treffen, jedoch ändern sich die Zeiten.
(Now we are not allowed to meet in large groups, however, the times are changing.)

• Sie reparierte ihr Auto für 2 Stunden, schließlich konnte sie nach Hause fahren.
(She repaired her car for 2 hours, finally she was able to drive home.)

• Bienen müssen existieren, sonst gibt es keinen Honig mehr.
(Bees need to exist, otherwise there is no more honey.)

• Das Paar erreichte die Spitze des Berges, später beobachteten sie den Sonnenuntergang.
(The couple reached the top of the mountain, later they watched the sunset.)

• Wir waren nach dem 3-Gänge-Menü voll, trotzdem hatten wir Nachtisch.
(We were full after the 3 course meal, nevertheless/despite of it we had dessert.)

And that's it for today! I hope you found these conjunction posts useful. I know writing them really helped clarify the differences for me. So until next week, auf Wiedersehen!

German Exercise for the Week

'Conjunction Card' Übung 3 (Level: A2)

Here you will find both a sorting exercise and a larger card size cut-out from all the conjunctions we've covered (coordinating conjunction, subordinating conjunction, conjunctional adverbs) so you can easily reference this technique in your writing :)

Link to: 'Conjunction Card' Übung 3 (Level: A2)