German sentence structure

German sentence structure is the syntactical structure to which the German language adheres. The basic sentence in German can be seen following the subject–verb–object word order (SVO). Additionally, German, like all living Germanic standard languages except English, uses V2 word order (verb second), though generally in independent clauses. In normal dependent clauses, the finite verb is placed last, followed by the infinite verb if existing, whereas main clauses including an auxiliary verb reserve the default final position for the infinite verb, keeping the finite verb second. Hence, both of these sentence types apply subject–object–verb word order (SOV), the first one quite purely, the latter in a mix. It is not uncommon to consider SOV the basic type.


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