By Martin L. Loeffler. The basic sentence has a subject and a verb. The subject and verb need to...

THE FOUR BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES IN GERMAN

By Martin L. Loeffler

Basic Sentence

The basic sentence has a subject and a verb.

The subject and verb need to be together. The subject and verb need to agree.

(You need to conjugate every sentence) It most likely will have additional things

like adjectives or phrases

Examples

Ich spiele die Gitarre. Subject and verb are together.

Er besucht Freunde. Subject and verb are conjugated.

Du hörst gern Musik nach der Schule. The rest of the stuff.

Practice

Du spiel_____ Musik. Du spielst_ Musik. _____ bin gut. _Ich_ bin gut. Ihr mach_______ Hausaufgaben gern. Ihr macht_ Hausaufgaben gern. _______ kommen aus Texas. Wir/Sie kommen aus Texas.

How do we make a question?

Switch the subject and verb. Nothing else changes. Subject and verb are still conjugated. The English “are and do” do not

exist. (Are you walking to school?) German equivalent(Walk you to school?)

It does not make any sense in English but it is good German.

Examples

Spiele ich die Gitarre? Subject and verb are still together but switched..

Besucht er Freunde? Subject and verb are still conjugated.

Hörst du gern Musik nach der Schule? The rest of the stuff is still

there.

Practice

Ich suche einen Tennisball. Suche ich einen Tennisball? Du bist intelligent. Bist du intelligent? Wir finden dich häßlich. Finden wir dich häßlich? Du liebst mich nicht. Liebst du mich nicht?

Key Questions

They are made by using “Who, What, Where, When, How”

The Key Word or W-Word goes at the front of the question.

Nothing else from the question sentence changes.

Key Question Wordsor W - Words

Wer Wo Was Wie Woher Wann Warum Was für

Who Where What How From where When Why What type

Examples

Wie heisst du? Subject and verb are switched.

Woher kommst du?

Wie findest du den Jungen? We only added the W-word/key word to the front

of a question. Was machst du?

Practice

_______ alt bist du? Wie _______ kommst du? Woher _______ bist du? Wo _______ spielst du? Was, Wo, Wann, Warum

Dialect joke

Verb in the second place or something at the beginning.

If I add a phrase or time or something at the beginning of the sentence, I then have a statement instead of a question.

We replace the W-word/Key word. The subject and verb are still switched. They are still conjugated.

For instance

Ich spiele Golf

Golf The subject and verb are switched.

It still is a statement.There is no comma so no new sentence is started.

heute

Heutespiele ich

For instance

Wo spiele ich Golf

spiele ich Golf. The subject and verb are still switched.

It changed from a question to a statement.There is no comma so no new sentence is started.Nothing changed in the rest of the sentence.

heute.

Heute

Examples

Nach der Schule tanze ich mit Freunden.

Um 10 Minuten nach 1 besuche ich Freunde.

Im Sommer spiele ich gern.

Am Wochenende habe ich Musik.

Conclusion

Regular Sentence. Du machst nichts nach der Schule.

Question Sentence.Machst du nichts nach der Schule?

Key Word QuestionWann machst du nichts nach der

Schule?

Time/Something/Verb in second placeNach der Schule machst du nichts.