B1 · The finishing touches
Where the comma goes
Ich weiß, dass er kommt.
German commas are grammatical, not rhythmic: a clause boundary takes one whether or not anybody pauses.
English commas mark a pause and are partly a matter of taste. German commas mark a structure and are mostly a matter of rule. The main one is short: every subordinate clause is separated from its main clause by a comma, always.
Ich weiß, dass er kommt. Wenn du willst, gehen wir. Das Buch, das ich gelesen habe, war gut. No German speaker pauses in those places, and the comma is obligatory in all three. A relative clause in the middle takes one at each end.
Two further rules cover most of what remains. A comma stands before aber, sondern, doch and before every subordinating conjunction; it does not stand before und or oder joining two main clauses, where it is now optional. And an infinitive group takes one when it is introduced by um, ohne, statt, anstatt.
Die Form
| Nebensatz | Ich weiß, dass er kommt. |
| Relativsatz, beidseitig | Das Buch, das ich las, war gut. |
| vor aber, sondern | Es ist spät, aber ich bleibe. |
| um … zu | Er kam, um zu helfen. |
| vor und: freiwillig | Ich komme(,) und sie bleibt. |
| Aufzählung | Brot, Butter und Käse |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
Every subordinate clause is separated by a comma.
Ich hoffe, dass es klappt.I hope it works.
A clause inside the sentence takes a comma at each end.
Der Mann, den ich meine, ist gegangen.The man I mean has left.
A comma stands before aber, sondern and doch.
Nicht heute, sondern morgen.Not today, tomorrow.
No comma before und or oder in a list.
Brot, Butter und Käsebread, butter and cheese
Genauer hingesehen
What the reform actually changed
The 1996 spelling reform loosened two rules and left the main one alone. The comma before und joining two full main clauses became optional, and the comma before a plain infinitive group became optional too. Everything about subordinate clauses stayed exactly as it was.
So a text with commas before und and one without are both correct, and the two rules that matter for a learner are unchanged: a subordinate clause always takes one, and a list never takes one before the final und.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
the infinitive group is plain
the comma is optional.
Ich versuche(,) pünktlich zu sein.I am trying to be on time.
The reform made it so; most writers still set it for clarity.
-
two adjectives are of different kinds
no comma stands between them.
ein großes rotes Hausa big red house
A comma implies they are equal and interchangeable; ein alter deutscher Film is not ein deutscher alter Film.
Woran man es erkennt
- dass
- weil
- wenn
- ob
- der
- die
- das
- aber
- sondern
- um zu
Beispielsätze
Ich glaube, dass sie recht hat.I think she is right.
Wenn es regnet, bleiben wir hier.If it rains we will stay here.
Das Auto, das dort steht, gehört mir.The car standing there is mine.
Er ist müde, aber er arbeitet weiter.He is tired but he keeps working.
Sie kam, um sich zu verabschieden.She came to say goodbye.
Noch 6 Beispielsätze
Er sagt, er komme später.He says he will come later.
Ob er kommt, weiß ich nicht.Whether he is coming I do not know.
Sie fragte, wann der Zug fährt.She asked when the train leaves.
Es war spät, doch niemand ging.It was late, yet nobody left.
Ohne zu fragen, nahm er sich einen.He took one without asking.
Wir kauften Äpfel, Birnen und Trauben.We bought apples, pears and grapes.
Besonderheiten (2)
-
The comma can change the meaning
German teachers use one example above all others: <z>Komm, wir essen, Opa</z> against <z>Komm, wir essen Opa</z>. The joke is old and the point is exact — the comma marks who is being addressed, and without it the grandfather becomes the meal.
-
A decimal comma too
German uses a comma where English uses a decimal point: <z>3,5</z> read as <z>drei Komma fünf</z>. The full stop groups thousands instead. Copying a figure between the two systems without converting is a mistake worth a factor of a thousand.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
English writes "I know that he is coming" with no comma, because nobody pauses there. German sets one anyway: the comma marks the boundary between two clauses, and whether a speaker pauses has nothing to do with it. Missing it is the commonest punctuation mistake English speakers make in German, and it is entirely mechanical to fix — every dass, every weil, every wenn gets one.
Every subordinate clause gets a comma, pause or no pause.
Jetzt selbst
5 Aufgaben zu diesem Thema. Die Antworten werden im Browser geprüft; nichts davon verlässt Ihr Gerät.