What goes in front of the verb, and what changes when you move it
CEFR B2 · part 2
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
Wenn ich das gewusst hätte: what would have happened and did notRegret and reproach, which is what this form is for. You build it with hätte or wäre…lassen: to leave, to have something done, to allow and to be doableOne verb with four distinct jobs, told apart by what sits next to it. Ich lasse den…eine Entscheidung treffen: the verb that lives inside the nounThe fixed noun-plus-verb pairs that replace a single verb, and are the hallmark of…Das ist zu machen, das hast du zu machen: obligation without a modalTwo constructions that say what the modals say without using them, and they are…doch, mal, ja, eben: the words that do not translateThe particles that do not change what a sentence says but do change how it lands, which…Reading German aloud: ei, ie, z, v, w, chReading any German word aloud, knowing which letters sound different from how they are…The rule, in three lines
The first slot in a German sentence is a decision, not an accident. Ich fahre morgen nach Berlin, Morgen fahre ich nach Berlin and Nach Berlin fahre ich morgen all say the same thing and underline different parts. The working rule: the first slot links back to what was just said, and the NEW information goes at the end.
The usual slip. Always putting the subject first, which is not wrong but produces flat text where nothing stands out and paragraphs do not hook onto each other. And the blunt error that survives into B2: putting TWO things in the first slot, Morgen ich fahre, the A1 mistake in new clothes.
Why it catches you out. English fronts things too —«tomorrow I'm going to Berlin»— and keeps the subject right where it was. That is precisely the habit to break: German fronting always costs you the subject's place, and «tomorrow I go» maps onto the one order German forbids.