German Connectors Book

In German, choosing a connector also means choosing a word order. Weil sends the verb to the end of the clause, deshalb pulls it into second place, and denn leaves the sentence unchanged. Across 19 pages, the guide groups more than eighty connectors by function and, crucially, explains these three patterns, which are the main source of errors for English speakers.

Each connector comes with an example sentence and translation, and later sections cover register, false friends, the subjunctive, and paired structures, with an answer key for the exercises.

Three word-order patterns

Sections 9 and 16 describe the rules that apply to every connector in the guide:

Once you know which group a connector belongs to, you know how to build the rest of the sentence. The first exercise trains exactly this by asking you to fix five sentences with the wrong word order, such as Obwohl das Wetter ist schlecht, wir gehen wandern.

The connector map

The first eight sections group the connectors by meaning: addition (außerdem, darüber hinaus, sowohl... als auch), contrast (obwohl, trotzdem, hingegen, sondern), cause and effect (weil, da, denn, deshalb, sodass), sequence (zunächst, anschließend, schließlich), examples (zum Beispiel, und zwar), emphasis (vor allem, tatsächlich), condition (falls, sofern, es sei denn), and summary (zusammenfassend, alles in allem).

Some causal connectors are prepositions with a case: wegen, aufgrund, and infolge take the genitive, as the guide notes in the list itself.

Traps for English speakers

Section 20 collects the confusions that cause most misunderstandings:

• Also means "so" or "therefore", not "also".
• Eventuell means "possibly" and aktuell means "current".
• Wenn is "if" or "whenever", wann asks "when?", and als refers to a single past event.
• After a negative, "but rather" is sondern, not aber: nicht rot, sondern blau.

The same section notes that "because" is not always weil. In the second exercise, for example, a gap followed by ich bin krank with normal word order can only be filled by denn; with weil or da, the verb would have to move: weil ich krank bin.

Register and paired connectors

The register guide separates formal written choices such as ferner, infolgedessen, and mithin from conversational fillers like na ja, halt, eben, and übrigens. Paired structures such as einerseits... andererseits, weder... noch, zwar... aber, and je... desto help organise an argument in a few words, and a short section shows als ob and unreal wenn with Konjunktiv II: Wenn ich Zeit hätte, würde ich kommen.

Exercises and next steps

Three exercises cover word order, choosing a connector, and joining sentence pairs by contrast, cause, and addition, and the answer key offers one or two solutions for each. After checking them, rewrite one pair three times, using denn, weil, and deshalb, and compare where the verb ends up each time.

The guide is aimed at learners from about A2 upwards who already form main clauses confidently and are starting to write longer texts.