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Connecting sentences 2
It is harder (and more important) than it looks!
Let’s say we have a sentence.
Peter isst selten Steak. Peter rarely eats steak.
Let’s add another sentence.
Steak ist teuer. Steak is expensive.
Now we want to combine them. It looks easy, we just put a “because”. But adding a so-called connecting word does something to sentence. It transforms it into a subordinate sentence (Nebensatz) and in our case a kausaler Nebensatz.
Peter isst selten Steak, weil Steak/es teuer ist.
Peter rarely eats Steak, because it is expensive.
Do you see what happened? The position of the verb in the subordinate sentence moved to the final position! Do not underestimate the importance of this grammar, students struggle with this for many years, when they learn it wrong.
I really suggest you check out the video now until 10:02 and do the exercises.
Things get more complicated
You have learned before that when we put an information in front of a sentence we have to change V-S into S-V. Example:
Ich kann leider nicht kommen.
Leider kann ich nicht kommen.
Now, if you put a whole subordinate sentence in front, then the same rule applies for the main sentence.
Weil ich keine Zeit habe, kann ich leider nicht kommen.
Subordinate sentence, main sentence.
But no need to panic. I admit, it is not the easiest concept. But keep watching the end of the video and you will understand it.
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Anna Ambatielou, Dresden
E-Mail: los_sprachschule@yahoo.com
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