After learning about the beautiful “TeKaMoLo” grammar rule, let’s have a look at another lovely German grammar rule: It’s called ADUSO
But what does ADUSO mean? First, let’s talk about the German sentence structure! Where is the verb in a common main sentence? Yes, you are right, it’s always in the second position! If you have more verbs, for example a modal verb and a main verb, the modal verb is the second word and the main verb is at the end . Let’s have a look at an example:
Ich kann (modal verb) heute nicht kommen (main verb).
When two sentences are put together, we can form so-called Nebensätze or subclauses. In subclauses, the verb always goes to the end. Typical conjunctions, which start subclauses are weil, obwohl, dass
Here is an example of a subclause:
Ich kann heute nicht kommen, weil ich zum Arzt gehen muss (all verbs at the end of the subclause)
Now, there are certain conjunctions, that don’t start subclauses. After those conjunctions, the sentence structure is the normal subject - verb - object. There are five of those conjunctions, and you can memorize them with the word ADUSO. They are:
- aber
- denn
- und
- sondern
- oder
Here are some examples of two connected main sentences using those conjunctions:
- Ich möchte heute kommen, aber ich habe keine Zeit.
- Ich mache Sport, denn ich muss abnehmen.
- Ich arbeite heute und ich lerne heute Deutsch.
- Du lebst nicht in Hamburg, sondern du lebst in Frankfurt.
- Wir essen heute Pizza oder wir essen Lasagne.
You see, ADUSO is not that complicated! Do you have any questions about this grammar rule?