German Conjunction Summary

This brief summary presumes basic familiarity with German conjunctions and word order.

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Practice sheet

Coordinating Conjunctions can join either sentence elements or independent clauses. When joining clauses they have no effect on the word order of the next clause: they are followed by one sentence element (e.g. subject, time expression), then the finite verb (i.e. the verb form that is adjusted for the subject).

aber1	but
denn2	because, for, "you see"
oder3	or
sondern1	but (rather), "instead"
und	and

¹Aber is the most frequent translation for 'but, however', and must be clearly distinuished from other words meaning 'but'.

• Aber expresses a contrast, contradiction, or doubt.
• Sondern expresses an alternative and implies '(but) rather, ...instead'. It appears only after a negative, i.e. a statement of what is not true, in contrast to what is true: Ich habe am Samstagabend nicht gelernt, sondern ich bin ins Kino gegangen. '...rather I went to the movies', '...I went to the movies instead.'
• When clauses are joined by aber, the first one may include zwar in the "black hole" position. Dictionaries translate this particle as 'to be sure', but it often corresponds to stressed verb in English:
  Ich hätte zwar gerne das letzte Wort, aber mehr fällt mir jetzt nicht ein!
  'I'd love to have the last word, but nothing else occurs to me now!'
• The preposition außer (D) means 'but, except, besides':
  Außer mir haben alle Kinder in der Klasse Sony Playstation!

²Denn means 'because', but is far more restricted in use than weil, which is typically the better choice. Denn is only appropriate when the information in the clause is more important than the fact it is a reason. It almost has the flavor of you see... + reason. Note also these situations, which require weil: denn cannot start off a sentence, and (consequently) a denn-clause cannot be used alone, in answer to a question.

³Oder Compare these related constructions:

entweder... oder... 'either... or...'

The finite verb may follow entweder directly
Entweder du kommst sofort oder du fährst nicht mit! or
Entweder kommst du sofort oder du fährst nicht mit!

weder... noch... 'neither... nor...'

joins sentence elements, not complete clauses.

Subordinating Conjunctions send the finite verb to the end of the clause. The most frequent ones are:

als1	when (single past event)
bevor	before
bis	until
da4	since (reason = because)
damit	so that, in order that
dass3	that
indem	by ...ing
nachdem	after
ob2	if = whether
als ob	as if
obwohl	although
seit(dem)4	since (time = 'ever since')
sobald	as soon as
solange	as long as
sooft	whenever
während	while
weil4	because
wenn1,2	when = whenever all non-past events as well as repeated past events
auch wenn	even though

¹When

• Wenn is used for 'when' in all non-past contexts as well as for repeated past events, where we could also say 'whenever'.
• Als is used for a single event in the past.
• Wann is the interrogative, used in both direct and indirect questions (the latter after verbs of knowing or telling):

  Wann bist du dann wieder zu Hause?
  Sie hat mich gefragt, wann ich wieder zu Hause bin.

²If Wenn is the more common translation, used to express a condition (= 'in case') Ob can be paraphrased 'whether'; it occurs with "indirect questions" in sentences whose main clause is a verb of communication or cognition (sagen, fragen, wissen...)

³That Dass introduces a subject or object clause, which acts as a noun. Don't confuse it with relative pronouns, which introduce a clause which describes a noun, i.e. acts as an adjective. Relative pronouns takes the form of the demonstrative pronouns we have learned. A simple test: can which or who be substituted for that without changing the meaning?

• You know that he's lying. (dass -- which / who doesn't make sense)
• The pen that I bought this morning is broken already. (relative pronoun -- which makes sense)

⁴Since Seit(dem) to express time (test: does "ever since" make sense?), da to express a reason (test: could you substitute because?).

Some Series of Preposition / Conjunction / Adverb

Preposition	Conjunction	Adverb
wegen (G) 'because of'	weil 'because'	deswegen, deshalb, darum 'therefore, that's why...'
trotz (G) 'despite'	obwohl 'although'	trotzdem 'anyway, nevertheless'
nach (D) 'after'	nachdem 'after'	nachher 'afterwards'
seit (D) 'since'	seit(dem) 'since'	seither, seitdem 'since then'
vor (D) 'before'	bevor, ehe 'before'	vorher 'beforehand, in advance'
während (G) 'during'	während 'while'	inzwischen 'meanwhile'
bis (A) 'until'	bis 'until'

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