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Position of an object in a German

  Tags: Syntax | German
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages Post Reply
kesiyi
Newbie
Taiwan
Joined 4521 days ago

2 posts - 2 votes
Speaks: Mandarin

 
 Message 1 of 3
28 July 2012 at 10:08pm | IP Logged 
Hi,

I am wondering of there are general rules to know where the object comes in a sentence
in German, especially when adverbs also appear in the sentence. I have thought of some
examples and have put the objects where I feel that they should belong. I have also
written a rule that would seem to explain the position of the object.

1) Ich besuche Peter / ihn morgen. (rule: With a name or pronoun, the object comes first
and then the adverb.)

2) Ich besuche morgen Freunde. (rule: With other objects, the adverb comes first and
then the object.
1 person has voted this message useful



daegga
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Austria
lang-8.com/553301
Joined 4525 days ago

1076 posts - 1792 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian
Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic

 
 Message 2 of 3
29 July 2012 at 1:09am | IP Logged 
Word order is relatively free in German, but you can use different word order for different emphasis.
For a neutral statement:
"Ich besuche <pronoun> morgen."
"Ich besuche morgen <noun>."

Names count like nouns.
The "rules" might be different for different kind of adverbs. Grammatically, "Ich besuche morgen <pronoun>." should be correct too I think, it just sounds weird.
Check out "das topologische Feldermodell" for a rough overview over German constituent positioning.

1 person has voted this message useful



kesiyi
Newbie
Taiwan
Joined 4521 days ago

2 posts - 2 votes
Speaks: Mandarin

 
 Message 3 of 3
29 July 2012 at 7:57pm | IP Logged 
Ok, thanks!


1 person has voted this message useful



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