Word order in German can seem unusual, especially when there is more than one verb in a sentence. However, you’ll soon find that there are some straightforward rules to follow and constructing sentences with confidence will be well within your grasp.
The Coffee Break German Show is a podcast series of bite-sized, friendly conversations in which we demystify tricky German language topics. In the latest episode, Mark and Thomas discuss some rules to follow when using more than one verb in a sentence.
This short but thorough conversation clarifies how to form multi-verb sentences with certainty.
Continue reading to find out more and why not listen to the podcast as you go?
The basics of word order
Let’s look at the basics to get a clear starting point. As you may already know, the verb in a German sentence occupies the second position.
The verb may follow the subject of the sentence or an adverb of time. When after an adverb, the subject is moved into third position.
What happens with two verbs?
When there are two verbs in a sentence, one is conjugated and the other may be in the infinitive form or be a past participle.
What do we do in this case? The conjugated, auxiliary verb takes the second position. Just as its name suggests, an auxiliary verb helps out by forming part of a tense with another main verb. The main verb goes to the end of the clause or sentence.
Let’s look at this situation in more depth.
Types of auxiliary verbs
The first type of auxiliary verb Mark and Thomas mention is werden. It works together with a main verb, in the infinitive, to form the future tense.
The other auxiliary verbs they mention are haben and sein. These are conjugated in the present tense and work together with a past participle of a main verb to form the perfect tense.
The last type of auxiliary verbs Mark and Thomas look at in this podcast are modal verbs. They, too, are conjugated and placed in second position with the infinitive being placed at the end of the sentence or clause.
Examples with two verbs in a sentence
Here is an example of the future tense:
Wir werden morgen mit dem Boot nach Korsika fahren.
Tomorrow, we will travel to Corsica by boat.
This construction uses the conjugated present tense of werden in second position and the infinitive form of the main verb, fahren.
In the podcast, Mark mentions all the information given between the two verbs. There’s the time phrase, morgen. Then there’s a mode of transport, mit dem Boot. Next, there’s a location, nach Korsika, before the main verb. This is a good reminder of the word order of other parts of a sentence, i.e. time, manner, place. However, that’s a whole other video in itself!
Our second example also shows two verbs in one sentence, but this time one is a modal verb in the present tense and the other is an infinitive.
Du sollst nach dem Essen deine Hände waschen.
You should wash your hands after eating.
Sollst, the modal verb, is in the present tense, and the other, waschen, is in the infinitive. The modal verb is conjugated and takes second position, while the main verb is placed at the end of the sentence.
Our third example is in the perfect tense.
Mein Vater hat gestern Abend für uns gekocht.
My father cooked for us last night.
The auxiliary verb here is the conjugated, present tense of haben, which is paired with the past participle of the main verb, gekocht, forming the perfect tense. The past participle is at the end of the sentence or clause.
It can seem as though there’s a lot between the auxiliary verb and the main verb at the end of the clause or sentence.
Thomas gives a top tip: if you are reading in German, first look at the end of the clause or sentence to see the main verb. This helps you find out what the sentence is about.
Negation of a sentence with two verbs
Where do we place nicht if we want to make the sentence negative?
The nicht goes directly before the main verb at the end. This way it negates the whole sentence, not just one part of it. For example:
Sie werden dieses Spiel nicht gewinnen.
You (formal) will not win this game. / They will not win this game.
This sentence is in the future tense, using werden as the auxiliary verb. (By the way, gewinnen means “to win”, despite looking like a past participle since the infinitive begins with ge-. The past participle of gewinnen is gewonnen.) As you can see, the nicht is right before the infinitive, making the sentence negative.
Beginning with an adverb
Commonly, sentences begin with something other than the subject of the sentence. For example, an adverb of time can begin a sentence or clause, as we see in the example below.
Letztes Jahr sind sie mit dem Auto in den Urlaub gefahren.
Last year, they travelled on holiday by car.
The important thing to remember in this situation is that the conjugated verb, sind, still has to be in the second position, after the adverb of time, letztes Jahr. It is the subject of the sentence, sie, that moves into third position when something else comes before the first verb. The main verb, gefahren, still remains in last position at the end of the clause or sentence.
Subordinate clauses
The last construction Mark and Thomas look at is when there are two verbs in a subordinate clause, rather than a main clause. Let’s look at a final example:
Wenn du morgen arbeiten musst, dann können wir auch übermorgen schwimmen gehen.
If you have to work tomorrow, then we can go swimming the day after tomorrow.
A nice way to remember which is the subordinate clause is to think of it as the one that cannot stand alone and make sense on its own. In this example, it begins with wenn. Wenn is a subordinating conjunction and sends the verb to the end. This turns the rules we’ve learned so far on their head, as the conjugated verb, musst, is sent to the end of that clause, immediately after the main verb, arbeiten.
The other part of the sentence is a main clause and the verbs appear in the “normal” way – können is in second position and gehen is at the very end of the clause and sentence.
All in order?
Here’s a visual summary of how word order works in sentences with two verbs.
Be conscious of word order the next time you read something in German. Gradually, you will become more familiar with the rules, and correct word order will feel increasingly natural when you’re speaking German.
If you found this post interesting, make sure to listen to the full episode with Mark and Thomas on The Coffee Break German Show. In this series of chats between our language experts, we look at a range of topics for German learners, so make sure to subscribe to our podcast feed and our channel on YouTube.
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