#learning there

Recently I said something like “once I figure out the little words I’ll be invincible”, and today I got one of these wrong. Then I checked the next task of the Brick by Brick challenge by @mylinguisticadventure and guess what, it’s a Grammar Time. So here we go.

Those “little words” I’m talking about are actually called conjunctions. They’re used to link different clauses in one sentence. 

In German, the verb usually occupies the 2nd place. Or, at least, the 2nd place of the main clause. But when you get a subordinate clause? It gets trickier. Usually, the conjunctions causes the verb to go to the end of its clause.

I have no inspiration so all my clauses will be variants of “Ich kaufe Kartoffeln”, bear with me.

Ich kaufe Kartoffeln, weil ich Kartoffeln kaufe.

Note: the subordinate clause counts as a “place”. If you start with it, the verb of the main clause goes right after the comma:

Als ich Kartoffeln kaufe, kaufe ich Kartoffeln.

But there are some exceptions. There are five (5) of them actually. Or so I’ve heard, and so I hope it is. These 5 are: und, oder, denn, sondern, aber. As my teacher used to say, these five don’t count as a place in the sentence, so the second clause is like another main clause, with the verb in second place. 

Ich kaufe Kartoffeln, und ich kaufe Kartoffeln. 

Ich kaufe Kartoffeln, oder Kartoffeln kaufe ich.