weil, denn, deshalb: German connectors and where the verb goes

A connector is a word that joins two thoughts into one sentence, and in German every connector belongs to one of three families. What sorts them is not their meaning but what they do to the verb of the clause they introduce. One family leaves the verb where it was, one sends it to the end of the clause, and one pulls it into the slot right after the connector. Learn the three behaviours and every connector you ever meet falls into place.

The same fact, said three ways, shows the whole system. Nora is learning German, and the reason is a job in Cologne. With weil (because) the verb möchte goes to the end. With denn (for, because) nothing moves. With deshalb (that is why) the verb comes right after the connector.

The three families

Team neutral joins two full sentences and changes neither of them. Team verb-to-end folds one sentence into the other, and inside the folded clause the verb walks to the very end. Team verb-next opens a new main sentence with the connector in first position, and because a German main sentence keeps its verb in second position, the verb lands immediately after it. So deshalb and trotzdem do not really move the verb at all. They occupy first place, and the verb follows as it always does.

weil, denn, deshalb: one reason, three ways

weil and denn both mean because, but they are twins with different jobs. denn joins like the English for and touches nothing. weil grabs the verb and throws it to the end. If you forget which is which, use denn, because it cannot bend word order. deshalb is the other side of the same coin. weil introduces the reason, deshalb introduces the consequence, and the two clauses simply swap places.

Watch what happens when the verb has two parts. In Tom ist müde, weil er schlecht geschlafen hat (Tom is tired because he slept badly) the conjugated helper hat takes the very last place, behind the participle. With denn the clause keeps its ordinary shape, as in Wir müssen uns beeilen, denn der Zug fährt gleich (we have to hurry, because the train leaves any moment). With deshalb only the conjugated verb moves up, and everything else stays behind it, as in Es regnet, deshalb bleiben wir zu Hause (it's raining, so we're staying home).

obwohl and trotzdem: the contrast pair

The contrast pair works the same way. obwohl (although) sends the verb to the end and sits in the clause with the obstacle. trotzdem (nevertheless) pulls the verb close and sits in the clause that defies the obstacle. Both can describe the same situation, and which you choose depends only on which half of the story you want to open with.

Notice what happens when the obwohl-clause comes first. The whole clause occupies the first position of the main sentence, so the main verb follows it directly, as in Obwohl ich müde bin, gehe ich noch laufen (although I'm tired, I'm still going for a run). The comma between the two halves is not a matter of taste. Before weil, dass, obwohl and their whole team a comma always comes, and German gives you this one for free. Hear the pause, write the comma.

dass, wenn, als: the rest of the verb-to-end team

Three more members send the verb to the end, and each has a job of its own. dass (that) reports a thought or a statement. wenn (when, if) covers repeated events and the future. als (when) covers one single event in the past. The choice between wenn and als is the one that costs marks. Als ich Kind war (when I was a child) happened once. Wenn ich müde bin (when I am tired) happens every time.

The full word list

The table gathers the members of the three teams with the level at which each is usually expected, and it adds three verb-to-end words that the examples above did not need, bis (until), bevor (before) and nachdem (after). Six more are worth recognising when you read them. sondern (but rather, after a negative), seitdem (since), während (while), damit (so that), ob (whether), and darum or daher, which mean that is why and behave exactly like deshalb.

Connectors in a letter: from A2 to B1

An A2 text and a B1 text often contain the same facts. The difference is connection. The B1 writer tells the reader how each sentence relates to the one before it, and in the writing exam these little words are the cheapest marks there are. Four sentences with no connectors at all read like this.

The same facts, connected, become a B1 passage. weil gives the reason, trotzdem the contrast, deshalb the consequence, and außerdem (besides, in addition), a fourth verb-next word, adds a point. The facts do not change at all.

Aim for three or four connectors per letter, not one per sentence, because an over-connected text sounds as mechanical as an unconnected one. You do not need more vocabulary to reach B1. You need weil for reasons, deshalb for consequences, trotzdem for contrast, and außerdem whenever you add a point.

Where this comes from

This page condenses chapter 10 of Der Wortbaukasten, Konnektoren, which teaches the three families with five examples for every connector, and the chapter Wörter, die verbinden from The Art of Writing, which supplies the letter. Deutsche Grammatik gives the same system its full grammatical treatment in chapter 7, Verbinden und Nebensatz, where the verb's move to the end is placed inside the whole geography of the German sentence, and returns to the als and wenn choice in chapter 31.

The full chapters add the opening scene about Nora and her brother, twenty more example sentences, the memory notes, and five exercises (sorting connectors into their teams, joining sentence pairs with a given connector, saying one fact three ways, choosing between obwohl and trotzdem, and writing five sentences about why you are learning German). Deutsche Grammatik chapter 7 adds what happens to separable verbs and to the Perfekt inside the folded clause. The free sample of Deutsche Grammatik on the book page contains the front matter and the first two chapters.

Continue with

• The four German cases in one table
• German B1 letter writing: the blueprint and the Redemittel