2.11 Coordinating conjunctions — the ones that do not move the verb — Epoché
What you will be able to do Join two main clauses with the five coordinating conjunctions — und , aber , oder , denn , sondern — and leave the word order of both clauses untouched: Er spielte Klavier und sie sang. Say why these five do not count as a position in the clause, and what would happen to the verb if they did: Ich brauche Wasser, denn ich habe Durst. Choose between aber and sondern , the second of which is only used after a negative: Das ist kein Blut, sondern Tomatensauce. Leave out the repeated verb in the second clause, which German does more readily than English: Er spielte Gitarre und sie Klavier. Prerequisites : 2.10 — you have just learned the order of the slots inside one middle field, and this lesson puts two such clauses side by side without disturbing either. You also need the rule that the verb is second, because the whole content of this lesson is that these conjunctions do not interfere with it. There are five of them, they are short, four of the five have close English counterparts, and the grammar of all five is the same: nothing happens. That is genuinely the lesson. After the last three lessons, which each asked you to move something, it is worth having one that asks you to move nothing, and it is worth knowing exactly which words are safe, because the very next lesson introduces a set of words that look similar and are not safe at all. The technical way of putting it is that these five conjunctions stand in position zero. German counts positions from the front of the clause: the front field is position one, the conjugated verb is position two. A coordinating conjunction sits outside that count. It is in front of position one and does not occupy it, so the clause behind it is an ordinary main clause with its subject in front and its verb second. How English does it English does exactly the same thing, which is why this lesson is short. And , but , or , for and so join two independent clauses and change neither of them. You say that he is poor but he is honest, with the second clause in its ordinary shape, and no English speaker has ever had to think about it. The difference is in the inventory rather than the behaviour, and it is in two places. The first is that German has two words for but and English has one. The general one is used when the second clause corrects, contrasts or qualifies. The special one is used only after a negative, where the second element replaces the first rather than qualifying it: not this, but that. English uses but for both jobs, and sometimes but rather for the second, which is the nearest thing to a dedicated word it has. Using the general word where the second half replaces something denied sounds wrong to a German, and an English speaker will do it constantly until the distinction is pointed out. A negative alone does not decide it: when the second half adds a contrast rather than a replacement, the general word is right even after a negative — Er ist nicht reich, aber glücklich , he is not rich, but he is happy. The second difference concerns the word for because . German has two of those as well, and they belong to different grammatical classes. One of them is a coordinating conjunction and appears in this lesson: it joins two main clauses and leaves the verb of the second clause in second position. The other is subordinating and is the subject of lesson 2.12: it sends the verb of its clause to the very end. English has only because , which does neither, so the English speaker has no cue at all telling them which German word they need. Three of the sentences quoted below use the coordinating one, and you should read them now and then read the because-sentences of the next lesson, because the pair is the sharpest illustration in the whole volume of what the word class of a conjunction does. A third and smaller difference is punctuation. German puts a comma in front of the words for but, for the coordinating because, and for the special but-after-a-negative. It does not require one in front of the words for and and or when they join two main clauses, although one is permitted if it helps. English punctuates by rhythm and by the length of the clauses; German punctuates by rule. The corpus sentences below show the rule being applied consistently, and it is worth noticing while you read them, because the comma is a reliable signal in German prose in a way it is not in English. The five, and the one thing they do not do Conjunction English · what it joins und and — two clauses, or two of anything; no comma needed between main clauses aber but — a contrast or a qualification; comma in front oder or — an alternative; no comma needed between main clauses denn because, for — a reason, as a main clause; comma in front sondern but rather — only after a negative, replacing what was denied; comma in front Now the thing they do not do. Compare what these five would do if they counted as position one. The verb would have to be second, which is to say immediately after the conjunction, which would put the subject third — the way the adverb deshalb of lesson 2.10 behaves. A subordinating conjunction does something else again: it sends the verb to the end of its clause, and that is what you will spend the next lesson on. None of the five words above does anything of the kind. The clause after them is untouched: subject, verb, middle field, exactly as if the conjunction were not there. Shape What occupies each position a single main clause position one is the front field, position two is the conjugated verb two clauses joined by one of the five the conjunction is outside the count; the second clause starts its own count again at one One consequence of standing outside the count deserves a sentence of its own, because it is a structural fact and not a piece of trivia. Because the conjunction does not occupy the front field, the front field of the second clause is still free, and a speaker may put something other than the subject there. So a clause