Dependent Clauses: Conditional, Concessive, Causal, Relative, and Final

There are several types of dependent clauses in German. Some of them are used to show the reason, cause, consequence, or condition related to the action in the main clause.

Let's learn how to form and use dependent clauses in German using different conjunctions.

Conditional Clauses with Wenn and Falls/Sofern

Rule 1: Clauses with wenn (when) or falls/sofern (if) indicate a condition that must be fulfilled for another action to take place.

Rule 2: There is a difference between wenn and falls/sofern. When using falls/sofern, the probability of the main action happening is rather low. The action used with wenn is expected.

Moreover, sofern can only used with negative sentences. Falls can be used whenever.

Conditional Clauses with Wenn and Subjunctive 2

Rule 3: To say that the past or present would be different if the past was changed right now, we use the past subjunctive 2 in a conditional clause together with wenn. This is the German alternative of the English Third Conditional.

It is used to express:

- Desire to change the past based on the past: If I had known fact A, then I would have done action B.

- Desire to change the present based on the past: If I had known fact A back then, I would do action B today.

Rule 4: To form conditional clauses with this construction, you just have to use the subjunctive of haben/sein + past participle of the main verb.

Concessive Clauses with Obwohl

Rule 5: When using obwohl (even though), we express an opposition or an illogical consequence of the statement of the main clause.

The subordinate clause with obwohl formulates a condition and the main clause formulates a non-logical consequence (= other than expected or consequence does not occur).

Causal Clauses with Da and Weil

Rule 6: Causal clauses introduce a reason or a cause: We would ask: "Why?" or "For what reason?" when creating them. Weil and da (both translated as "because") are placed at the beginning of causal clauses.

Rule 7: Both weil and da have exactly the same meaning, but when a causal clause comes before a main clause, we usually use da. Causal clauses introduced with weil could also stand alone if they are the answer to a question.

Relative Clauses with Relative Pronouns

Rule 8: Relative clauses give additional information about a noun from the main clause and describe it in more detail. They are introduced with a relative pronoun that stands for the noun of the main clause.

Rule 9: Relative pronouns are:

Relative pronouns must be declined according to gender, number and case. They are generally placed directly after the subject or object to which they refer, and always start the relative subordinate clause.

Final Clauses with Damit and Um....zu

Rule 10: Final clauses indicate an intention, a purpose, or a goal. If the subject in the main clause is not identical to the one in the subordinate clause, we must use the conjunction damit (so that, in order to).

Rule 11: If the subject is the same in the main clause and final clause, we use the conjunction um ... zu (in order to) with an infinitive verb.

Um introduces the subordinate clause and zu + infinitive concludes the sentence. There is no subject in the subordinate clause. When writing, we put a comma before um.

Rule 12: If you have a separable verb, then zu gets in between the prefix and the rest of the verb.