Every regular declaratory sentence has the verb in second
position. If the verb consists of several parts (e.g. modal verb
and infinitive; auxiliary verb and perfect participle; or
separable-prefix verb and prefix) the rest of the verb is in the
last position. Examples:
Er geht heute in die Schule.(He is going to school
today.)
Heute geht er in die Schule.(Today he is going to
school.)
Gestern ist er nicht in die Schule gegangen.(Yesterday he didn't go to school.)
Morgen muss er einen Test schreiben.(Tomorrow he has
to write a test.)
Heute fängt sein Unterricht um acht Uhr an.(Today his classes begin at eight o'clock.)
Heute morgen ist er um sieben Uhr aufgestanden.(This
morning, he got up at seven o'clock.)
Sentence element in first position
Usually, sentences begin with the subject. But they can also
begin with adverbs, adverbial phrases, or objects. These first
elements are always followed by the conjugated part of the verb.
Example sentences:
Sie kauft heute Sommersachen.(She is buying summer
clothes today)
Heute kauft sie Sommersachen.(She is buying summer
clothes today)
Sommersachen kauft sie heute.(She is buying summer
clothes today)
Sie fängt in einigen Tagen ihre neue Arbeit an.(She will be starting her new job in a few days.)
In einigen Tagen fängt sie ihre neue Arbeit an.
(She will be starting her new job in a few days.)
Ihre neue Arbeit fängt sie in einigen Tagen an.(She will be starting her new job in a few days.)
Position Zero
The coordinating conjunctions (words that connect two or more
sentences) und, aber, oder,
sondern,denn take the so-called position zero in a
sentence. This means that they have no influence on the word
order.
Susanne malt und Christian schreibt.(Susanne paints
and Christian writes.)
Susanne malt, aber Christian malt nicht.(Susanne
paints, but Christian doesn't paint.)
Christian schreibt oder er geht spazieren.(Christian
writes or he goes for walks.)
Christian malt nicht, sondern er schreibt.(Christian
does not paint, but he writes.)
Christian malt nicht, denn er kann nicht malen.(Christian does not paint, for [because] he cannot
paint.)
Word order in questions and imperatives
The word order in questions is similar to the word order in
questions in English. If the question starts with a question word,
the question word is followed by the verb. Example
sentences:
Woher kommen Sie? (Where do you come from?).
Was machen Sie? (What do you do?).
Wie lange bleiben Sie? (How long are you
staying?).
If the question can be answered with either yes or no, it starts
with the verb:
Kommen Sie aus Amerika? (Are you from
America?).
Sind Sie Geschäftsleute? (Are you business
people?).