Subordinate Clauses

Overview

In spoken conversations simple main clauses aren't always enough to express what we want to say. So a lot of the time we use "Nebensätze" (subordinate clauses) to add extra information to the sentence.

Maria hat gesagt, dass du um drei Uhr im Café sein sollst. (Maria said that you should be at the cafe at three o'clock.)

Sentence structure

Subordinate clauses cannot stand on their own. They are dependent on the main clause because they give additional information. They are usually introduced by a comma and a linking word (conjunction)

Types

Word order rule

In contrast to main clauses, the verb in subordinate clauses comes at the end.

Two main clauses:

Ich mag ihn. Er ist lustig. (I like him. He is funny.)

Main and subordinate clause:

Ich mag ihn, weil er lustig ist. (I like him because he's funny.)

Subordinate clauses begin with conjunctions like "ob" (if), "weil" (because) or "dass" (that), the verb goes to the end and the rest of the words usually remain in the same order.

You can recognise a subordinate clause by looking at the word that introduces it, and by the fact that it can't stand alone. A subordinate clause gives extra information, but it only makes sense in the context of the main clause of the sentence.


Created: 06 Nov 2022

Last Update: 31 Aug 2025

Page last modified on October 04, 2025, at 01:54 PM
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