dafür at the first place?
Is this sentence grammatically right?

Dafür will ich mich entschuldigen, dass ich Verspätung habe.

or we can not use "dafür" at the first place of the sentence?

Thank you in advance

Question

dafür at the first place?
Is this sentence grammatically right?

Dafür will ich mich entschuldigen, dass ich Verspätung habe.

or we can not use "dafür" at the first place of the sentence?

Thank you in advance

Answer

If you put "dafür" at the beginning of a sentence, it refers to something you mentioned in the previous sentence. For example:
"Ich habe mich verspätet [weil...]. Dafür möchte ich mich entschuldigen".
If you want to keep it within one sentence, you'll have to say: "Ich möchte mich dafür entschuldigen, dass ich Verspätung habe". Or more elegantly: "Ich möchte mich für die Verspätung entschuldigen".

Answer

It certainly sounds strange. I wouldn't call it outright wrong, but I'd expect it only in this order if you want to emphasize "dafür" for some reason. The normal way to put it would be "ich will mich dafür entschuldigen, dass ..."

Answers · 4

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