german grammar: satzstellung
"Es war vorgesehen, dass uns der Bus am Hotel abholt." oder "Es war vorgesehen, dass der Bus uns am Hotel abholt." oder "Es war vorgesehen, dass der Bus am Hotel uns abholt", which one(s) is/are right in terms of grammar, and which sounds more natural?
yep, i'm asking about nebensatzstellung...
thank you
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Answers · 5
1
In addition to DonHolgo: Except for the verbs, the rules for main clauses and subclauses are the same. In this example, are three parts, "der Bus" (subject), "uns" (known accusative object), and "am Hotel" (place adverbial).
Natural word order is difficult, but the basic rules are:
- nominative before dative before accusative
- known (pronouns etc.) before unkown (full nouns)
- time before manner before place
So:
- (der Bus) (uns) (am Hotel) is the natural order
- (uns) (der Bus) (am Hotel) emphasizes "uns", still natural, but with slight emphasis
- (der Bus) (am Hotel) (uns) violates "known before unknown", so there's a strong, unnatural emphasis on "am Hotel", unless you group (der Bus am Hotel) together
As I said, the same rules apply for a main clause, if you insert the verb in the correct position:
Der Bus holt uns am Hotel ab - natural
Uns holt der Bus am Hotel ab - slight emphasis on "uns"
Der Bus holt am Hotel uns ab - unnatural
1
The first two are correct, both sound natural. The third is only ok if you really mean "that the bus at the hotel (i.e. the bus that is/was at the hotel) pick us up".
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