Word order in German is pretty strict. There are a few patterns. There are patterns for declarative sentences, for interrogative and imperative sentences, as well as for subordinate clauses. Today let’s concentrate on word order in independent clauses.
An independent clause has a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought. It can stand alone as a coherent sentence.
Let’s have a look at the following examples:
| Der Hund bellt vielleicht zu laut. | Perhaps the dog barks too loudly. |
| Du kommst heute spät. | You’re coming late today. |
| Sie springt wahrscheinlich hoch. | She probably jumps high. |
| Sie singt manchmal laut. | She sometimes sings loudly. |
Now, in English you can change the word order to some extent. Either sentence is correct:
You’re coming late today.
and
Today you’re coming late.
In German you can also change the word order, but the verb (or the whole verb group) in an independent declarative clause must be in second position. This means that the subject (the doer) may need to be moved beyond the verb.
Sounds complicated? You better see for yourself. In the following sentences each part of the sentence is enclosed in square brackets. Notice that the verb is always in the second position.
| Basic order | Changed order |
| [Der Hund] [bellt] [vielleicht] [zu laut]. | [Vielleicht] [bellt] [der Hund] [zu laut]. |
| [Du] [kommst] [heute] [spät]. | [Heute] [kommst] [du] [spät]. |
| [Sie] [springt] [wahrscheinlich] [hoch]. | [Wahrscheinlich] [springt] [sie] [hoch]. |
| [Sie] [singt] [manchmal] [laut]. | [Manchmal] [singt] [sie] [laut]. |
The subject either precedes the verb (like in the sentences on the left) or follows it (like in the sentences on the right). Its position is not as crucial as that of the verb!
And now have a look at this sentence:
| Karl kauft heute ein Geschenk für seine Frau. | Karl is buying a present for his wife today. |
The verb is in bold type so that you can easily see it. So, it’s in second position, just after the subject. This is the most neutral word order. We use it when all we want is communicate a fact. But depending on which part of the sentence we want to emphasize, we can change the word order pretty flexibly. We often put the emphasized element at the end. Have a look at these sentences. Each emphasizes a different element:
Heute kauft Karl ein Geschenk für seine Frau.
What matters is what he is doing today at all, so this could be the answer to the question: Was macht er heute?
Ein Geschenk für seine Frau kauft Karl heute.
What matters here is when this happens. We could ask: Wann kauft er ein Geschenk für seine Frau?
Ein Geschenk für seine Frau kauft heute Karl.
What matters here is who is buying a present for his wife. The question could be: Wer kauft heute ein Geschenk für seine Frau?
Für seine Frau kauft Karl heute ein Geschenk.
What matters here is what Karl is buying for his wife. We could ask: Was kauft er heute für seine Frau?
Für seine Frau kauft Karl ein Geschenk heute.
What matters here when he’s buying the present particularly for his wife, maybe as opposed to the other presents he’s buying. We could ask: Wann kauft er ein Geschenk ausgerechnet für seine Frau?
These two sentences look similar:
Ein Geschenk für seine Frau kauft Karl heute.
Für seine Frau kauft Karl ein Geschenk heute.
There is a slight difference, though. In the first sentence we can treat ein Geschenk für seine Frau as a unity or a single unit. He’s buying just one present and it so happens it’s for his wife.
In the second sentence he may be buying more presents, but the one that interests us is the one for his wife.
As you can see, there are lots possibilities in German. But there’s just this one and only rule to remember: the verb must be in the second position in independent declarative clauses.