This entry is an extension of the first Need-to-Know English Grammar for Successful German Learning [Parts of Speech]. You will need to understand the Parts of Speech before this entry will make much sense.
In this entry we will look at:
- Parts of a Sentence
- Types of Sentence Structures -and-
- Types of Sentence Functions.
So, here we go!
1. Parts of a Sentence:
- SUBJECT
- What is it? the noun performing the verb.
- Examples: The scientist gave the potion to the robot.
- Why do we care? In German, the position of a noun as the subject, object or indirect object directly affects which determiner you must use to to construct a grammatically correct sentence. You must identify which of these options your noun is acting as, and take the noun’s gender into account in order to select the correct determiner. If your noun is the subject, the correct determiner will be the nominative case of the noun gender.
- Additional Resources: The Tale of Mr. Morton
- OBJECT
- What is it? the noun receiving the verb.
- Examples: The scientist gave the potion to the robot.
- Why do we care? In German, the position of a noun as the subject, object or indirect object directly affects which determiner you must use to to construct a grammatically correct sentence. You must identify which of these options your noun is acting as, and take the noun’s gender into account in order to select the correct determiner. If your noun is the object, the correct determiner will be the accusative case of the noun gender.
- INDIRECT OBJECT
- What is it? the to whom/for whom of the verb.
- Examples: The scientist gave the potion to the robot.
- Why do we care? In German, the position of a noun as the subject, object or indirect object directly affects which determiner you must use to to construct a grammatically correct sentence. You must identify which of these options your noun is acting as, and take the noun’s gender into account in order to select the correct determiner. If your noun is the indirect object, the correct determiner will be the dative case of the noun gender.
- PREDICATE
- What is it? the rest of the sentence that isn’t the subject.
- Examples: The scientist gave the potion to the robot.
- Why do we care? No reason in particular that I can think of at this time.
- Additional Resources: The Tale of Mr. Morton
- CLAUSE
- What is it? the the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. A typical clause consists of a subject and verb and sometimes other modifiers.
- Examples: The scientist made the potion.
- Why do we care? In German, clauses and the conjunctions and relative pronouns that connect them play games with verb/word order and word choice in a sentence.
- INDEPENDENT CLAUSE
- What is it? a clause that can stand on its own as a grammatically correct sentence.
- Examples: The scientist made the potion because he wanted to. Because he wanted to, the scientist made the potion.
- Why do we care? In German, clauses and the conjunctions that connect them play games with verb/word order in a sentence. If the independent clause comes first, then the clause is constructed normally. If the independent clause comes after the dependent clause, the dependent clause is treated as the first “word” of a sentence and the verb of the independent clause comes right after the dependent clause’s comma. Here are the examples from above, in German: Der Wissenschaftler hat den Zaubertrank gemacht, weil er es wollte. Weil er es wollte, hat der Wissenschaftler den Zaubertrank gemacht.
- DEPENDENT/SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
- What is it? a clause that cannot stand on its own as a grammatically correct sentence, usually includes a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun. These clauses generally perform (as a clause unit) a grammatical function of the sentence such as compose a noun, adverb or adjective.
- Examples: The scientist made the potion because he wanted to. Noun Clause: The scientist was proud of what he created. Adverb Clause: When the potion was done, he gave it to the robot. Adjective Clause: The potion, of which he was proud, was given to the robot.
- Why do we care? In German, clauses and the conjunctions that connect them play games with verb/word order and word choice in a sentence. The subordinating conjunction determines the verb/word order of the dependent/subordinate clause. I will expound on each of these conjunctions and their effects in a future post, but for now you can refer to this other author’s explanation. Dependent clauses that are made with relative pronouns require the writer/speaker to understand what part of speech that the clause is fulfilling and therefore which pronoun is grammatically proper to use (masculine, feminine, neuter, nominative, accusative, dative, genitive…). These relative pronouns can also affect word order.
- PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
- What is it? a cluster of words that are composed of a preposition, its object and any other modfiers of the object. They can modify nouns, verbs, other phrases or complete clauses.
- Examples: The scientist with the potion walked towards the robot.
- Why do we care? In German specifically, prepositions hold a lot of power over the noun case (which affects determiners and other parts of speech endings). Some German prepositions are always accusative, some are always dative, some are always genitive and some switch between accusative and dative based on the relation they describe.
2. Types of Sentence Structures:
- SIMPLE SENTENCE
- What is it? a sentence composed of a single independent clause.
- Examples: I smiled. The scientist made the potion.
- Why do we care? It’s good to know.
- COMPOUND SENTENCE
- What is it? a sentence composed of at least two independent clauses.
- Examples: I smiled and the scientist made the potion.
- Why do we care? In German conjunctions that connect clauses can play games with verb/word order and word choice.
- COMPLEX SENTENCE
- What is it? a sentence that contains an independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
- Examples: I smiled because the scientist made the potion.
- Why do we care? In German conjunctions that connect clauses can play games with verb/word order and word choice. The subordinating conjunction determines the verb/word order of the dependent/subordinate clause.
- COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCE
- What is it? a sentence that contains two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.
- Examples: I smiled and the robot chortled because the scientist made the potion.
- Why do we care? In German conjunctions that connect clauses can play games with verb/word order and word choice. The subordinating conjunction determines the verb/word order of the dependent/subordinate clause.
3. Types of Sentence Functions:
- DECLARATIVE SENTENCE
- What is it? a sentence that makes a statement.
- Examples: Robots move. Cheese is delicious.
- Why do we care? It’s good to know.
- INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE
- What is it? a sentence that poses a question.
- Examples: How do robots move?
- Why do we care? In German almost any sentence can be converted into a question by positioning the verb at the beginning of the sentence and placing a question mark at the end. Example: “Sie kommen nach Hause.” = You come back home. “Kommen Sie nach Hause?” = Are you coming back home?
- IMPERATIVE SENTENCE
- What is it? a sentence that delivers a demand.
- Examples: Move the robot. Listen up. Pay attention. Come with us. Come back home with us.
- Why do we care? In German, the verb will come at the beginning of an imperative sentence, but so that it is not confused with being an interrogative sentence,e the verb form takes a slightly different form. Usually the root of the verb stays and the conjugation falls off of the end. Then the sentence is always punctuated with an exclamation mark at the end. Examples: Beweg den Roboter! Hör zu! Pass auf! Komm mit! Komm mit uns nach Hause!
- EXCLAMATORY SENTENCE
- What is it? a sentence that expresses intense emotions.
- Examples: I love watching robots move!
- Why do we care? In German, the sentence will be punctuated with an exclamation mark at the end, but so that it is not confused with being an imperative sentence, the verb will maintain its ‘usual’ form and position as if it were a simple sentence.
So, now you know! Another thing that is vital to writing good sentences is understanding tenses and how they affect German word order and sentence structure. German verb tenses get me a bit tense, but I’ll do my best to lay them all out for you in an upcoming blog post. Until then, keep studying.