Conditional Sentences

"Konditionalsätze" (conditional sentences) help us to talk about a condition and a result that will only occur if a condition is met.

Wenn es regnet, gehen wir ins Kino. (If it rains, we'll go to the cinema.)

A basic conditional sentence consists of two parts: the main action (in the main clause), and the condition that has to be met in order for the action to happen (in the subordinate clause).

We can introduce a condition with

"wenn" (if),
"falls" (in case) or
"sofern" (provided).

They all have very similar meanings.

"Sofern" is the most formal and "wenn" the most frequent, but we can generally use them interchangeably.

Wir nehmen einen Schirm mit, falls es regnet.(We're bringing an umbrella, in case it rains.)

We can swap the order of the main action (main clause) and the condition (subordinate clause).

When the condition comes first, the following main clause begins with the verb.

Ich kann nicht kochen, wenn ich nicht einkaufen gehe.

Wenn ich nicht einkaufen gehe, kann ich nicht kochen.

Created: 03 Dec 2022

Last Update:

Edit | History | Recent Changes (all) | Search

Page last modified on December 03, 2022, at 07:46 AM