German Sentence Structure - Subordinate Clauses

Subordinate Clauses

A subordinate clause (Nebensatz) is always incorporated in a main sentence (or another subordinate clause). Any part of the main clause can be replaced by it, but some conjugated verb must remain. However, subclauses are generally moved to the end of the sentence if it can be done without inconvenience, and if they do not take the first place because of importance. As for its word order, it differs in two things only from a main clause:

1. In general, it begins with a special word, a 'subordinating conjunction' or a relative pronoun, setting it into relation with the encompassing sentence.
2. The verb is, without separation, sent to the place where the first part of a separable verb would be in a main clause, i. e. at the end of the sentence.

Ich nehme das frühere Flugzeug, damit ich heute noch ankomme. = "I'll take the earlier plane so that I arrive even today."

Question words (in the following example, 'wohin') have the same effect as subordinating conjunctions within a sentence.

Wohin ist er gelaufen? Niemand wusste, wohin er gelaufen ist. ("Where did he run (to)? No one knew where he ran (to)." -- Note that, unlike in English, a subordinate or dependent clause is always separated from the independent clause (Hauptsatz) by a comma.)

Oddities:

1. Final clauses can be replaced by an "um-zu"-infinitive, if the subject is identical; in practice, um behaves as conjunction, and the infinitive, with a zu, as conjugated verb, and the subject falls away.

Wir haben genug Geld, um diese CD zu kaufen. = Wir haben genug Geld, damit wir diese CD kaufen. "We have enough money to/that we buy this CD."

2. In conditional phrases, the conjunction wenn may be left out in the main clause and the verb put into its place. In this case, so replaces dann in the subordinate clause.

Hast du genügend Geld, so kannst du diese CD kaufen. = Wenn du genügend Geld hast, dann kannst du diese CD kaufen. "If you have enough money, then you can buy this CD."

3. Indirect speech may behave as subclause in relation to the main clause, but the conjunction (which would be "dass") may be left out and then its word-order is as in main clauses.

Er sagte, er sei mit der Arbeit fertig. = Er sagte, dass er mit der Arbeit fertig sei. = "He said (that) he had finished his work."

4. Denn, by custom translated into English as for, is in practice just an equivalent to weil "because", but it requires a main-clause word-order and may even take a semicolon instead of a comma.

Er kommt nicht zur Arbeit, denn er ist krank. (He doesn't come to work, for he's ill.) = Er kommt nicht zur Arbeit, weil er krank ist. = "He doesn't come to work because he's ill."