Was hast du? (Why didn’t you call me? I studied English and American Studies, Communication Science, and Political Science at the University of Greifswald. In English the order of the words changes when converting a statement to a question. ), 5. (Sabrina likes to eat chocolate. I am looking at you, 2020! German: Wohnen Sie in Deutschland. Further, I am inclined to encourage you to speak German in every situation. (How can you say something like that? macht gut, Create custom lessons in any language, at any level in just 1-2 hours. Setz dich! ), 18. When you want to form a yes/no-question you simply have to invert the subject and the full verb of a simple sentence. Past Simple: Questions - Word Order 10 'Past Simple' question sentences; with ANSWER KEY Write the sentences in the correct order. ), Isst Sabrina gerne Schokolad? (2nd person plural; informal), Hören Sie auf! (2nd person plural; informal), Setzten Sie sich! Todays lesson covers how asking questions in German actually works. German-Question-Words (click the link or the image for the full version, pdf) What we’ll do in the rest of the lesson is we’ll go over the words one by one, check out the most important variations and talk about the grammar and structure of these questions. Let’s try to find some examples of these rules in some sentences that I took from this Spiegel Online article about the band Steel Panther: Offenbar nicht ohne Grund muss man in Deutschland volljährig sein, um Ihre Konzerte zu besuchen. Ex: Hans ist am Montag aus Langeweile mit der Straßenbahn in die Stad t gefahren. (Claudia drinks coffee. But there are some rules to follow. Carlos in Milwaukee.WI Wie kannst du nur so etwas sagen? Wie steht mir der Mantel? Approximately 15 minutes. FREE Download. ), 15. (Who told you that? In English, adverbs usually come after prepositions but in German, it is the opposite. – Sit down! ), 8. However, in the case of compound words, the second part of the conjugated compound word goes at the end of the sentence. (Who should pick you up? The basic pattern is the order subject – finite verb – object (S–V–O). Sentence structure or word order (Wortstellung) is more flexible in German than in many other languages thanks to the cases. (When do/will we meet?). You have two types of word order in questions … ), Trink Claudia Kaffee? ), Hello everybody! Wann treffen wir uns? But there are still some patterns and rules in German. W-Questions. W-questions are questions that use question words. The adverbs wo and da coupled with prepositions become helpful tools in day-to-day German conversation. German word order will be the subject of this worksheet/quiz. Was soll das bedeuten? or. They are called w-questions because all question words in German start with the letter "w." W-questions are asking for more information, and a "yes" or "no" is not enough to answer them. (Martin works at Porsche. There are two main types of questions: yes/no-questions and so-called w-questions – questions that start with question words, that is, why (warum), what (was), how (wie), when (wann), where (wo), who (wer), etc. Then, ask your questions to a classmate. English has rules about the order of words in a sentence. hubs.ly/H0Bfrlz0. The basic pattern is the order subject – finite verb – object (S–V–O). As you know this kind of question needs a question word. – Sit down! Share this: Share. There are no fixed rules for which order information appears in a simple German sentence. In comparison German word order is more flexible than English word order. Wo darf ich mich setzten? (Does Martin work at Porsche? / can also mean: What’s wrong with you? But amid all this chaos we can also find and discover new things. (How come that you have heard about that? In comparison German word order is more flexible than English word order. (Does Peter play the piano? This kind of question is an interroagtive question, the answer is not “Yes” or “no”. You want to know the name of a person and ask this person. German word order can seem complicated, but there are set rules. Being able to ask questions is a key part of learning German. Translation: what (English) -> wie (German) Wann wird Susanne ankommen? If you remember nothing else about German word order, remember this: the subject will either come first or immediately after the verb if the subject is not the first element.