Coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and how they affect word order.
Conjunctions like 'und', 'weil', and 'aber' connect ideas, but be careful—many of them change the word order of the sentence.
Subordinating conjunctions introduce dependent clauses and require the conjugated verb to move to the very end of the sentence.
Both 'dass' and 'weil' move the verb to the end, but 'dass' introduces a fact or statement, while 'weil' provides a reason.
Both 'dass' and 'ob' move the verb to the end, but 'dass' introduces a certain fact, while 'ob' is used for uncertainty or 'yes/no' questions.
These four words distinguish between past events (als), repeating conditions (wenn), clock time (wann), and uncertainty (ob).
The choice between 'als', 'wenn', and 'wann' depends on whether the event is a single past occurrence, a repeated action, or a question.
Conjunctions in German are various kinds of words that tie several words, or clauses, or phrases or even full sentences together. Unlike in English, there are often several possible German words that might all mean the same English conjunction, for example, "aber" (but) or "sondern" (but).
You have to pay attention to how they are used, for instance, "aber" can mean "but", "however" or "nonetheless" and it is used right after a positive or negative clause while "sondern", which can mean "but", instead, etc, is employed only after a negative clause.
The mistake many German students make is trying to think in English instead of thinking in German and immersing themselves into the language they are learning. They also don't think about gender, case or word order, all of which are vital when trying to learn and translate from English to German.
