German Word Order
In our first post on the word order of a German sentence, we looked at simple sentences with only one verb. In this article we are going to look at some examples of sentences that contain two verbs. This also includes the German past and future tense and we will give you some great example sentences below. Learn and enjoy the German language with Jabbalab!
Word order with two verbs
When you have a sentence in German with two verbs, the first verb (V1) appears as you would expect, straight after the subject (S). The second verb (V2) however does not follow the same pattern as in English. In English the second verb comes straight after the first verb. However in German, it goes to the end of the sentence.
Example sentences:
I want to play football. ⇨ Ich (S) will (V1) Fußball spielen (V2).
I would like to listen to my new CD. ⇨ Ich (S) möchte (V1) meine neue CD hören (V2).
I’m going shopping now. ⇨ Ich (S) gehe (V1) jetzt einkaufen (V2).
Here you can see that the second verb always goes to the end of the sentence in its full form (infinitive).
German word order in the past tense
The same word order in German also applies when talking about the past in the perfect tense or in the pluperfect tense. The only difference here with the past tense sentences is that the second verb at the end of the sentence is in the past participle form rather than the normal infinitive form.
Example sentences:
I have bought a house. ⇨ Ich (S) habe (V1) ein Haus gekauft (V2).
We went to the cinema yesterday. ⇨ Wir (S) sind (V1) gestern ins Kino gegangen (V2).
He had arrived very late. ⇨ Er (S) war (V1) sehr spät angekommen (V2).
German word order in the future tense
And the same applies in the future tense. The second verb will stay in the infinitve and goes to the end of the sentence.
Example sentences:
He will study in England next year. ⇨ Er (S) wird (V1) nächstes Jahr in England studieren (V2).
I will go in the meeting tomorrow. ⇨ Ich (S) werde (V1) morgen ins Meeting gehen (V2).
German word order for questions
The final point we want to cover in this article is when a question is asked that contains two verbs. The pronoun and first verb switch places to make the sentence a question (the same as in English), but all else remains the same as a standard sentence.
Example sentences:
Can I stay with you? ⇨ Kann (V1) ich (S) bei dir bleiben (V2)?
Are you also going swimming? ⇨ Geht (V1) ihr (S) auch schwimmen (V2)?
For more info on how to ask a question in German read our blog here and for more info on the word order with adverbs read our blog here.