Immer wiederholen!German word order
Unlike the fairly flexible word order of English, German follows strict positional rules. The main one is the V2 rule (Verb an zweiter Stelle — "verb in second position"), and it's exactly what determines what happens to the subject when something else takes first position in the sentence.
The main rule: the verb goes second
In an ordinary (main) German sentence, the conjugated verb always goes in second position — not necessarily the second word, but the second meaningful element of the sentence. This holds no matter what comes first:
| 1st position | 2nd position (verb) | rest |
|---|---|---|
| Ich | lese | heute ein Buch. |
| Heute | lese | ich ein Buch. |
| Ein Buch | lese | ich heute. |
The verb lese stays second in all three versions. What changes is what's
first, and the subject ich shifts along with it — it moves to right after the
verb whenever something else takes first position.
The same rule applies after conjunctional adverbs
Words like deshalb, trotzdem, außerdem, and
deswegen take first position themselves — and by the V2 rule the verb still
stays second, with the subject shifting to third:
Es regnet. Deshalb bleiben wir zu Hause. (not
Deshalb wir bleiben). This is often confused with coordinating conjunctions
(und, aber, oder, denn,
sondern), after which word order doesn't change at all — see
"Conjunctions" for the full breakdown of the difference.
In subordinate clauses, the verb moves to the end
After a subordinating conjunction (weil, obwohl,
dass, wenn, als...), an entirely different rule
applies: the conjugated verb moves all the way to the end of the subordinate clause instead
of staying in second position: Ich bleibe zu Hause, weil ich krank bin. That's
exactly what makes a subordinate clause subordinate — a recognizable structure, not just a
logical link. The bot drills both this and the inversion after conjunctional adverbs
separately, with meaning and word order trained as two distinct steps — see
"Conjunctions" for more.
Practice
To make sure it sticks, try a few exercises on word order after connectors.