Subordinate clauses (Nebensätze) are dependent clauses that cannot stand alone and must be linked to a main clause. They provide additional information such as reasons, conditions, time relations, descriptions, or reported speech. In German, subordinate clauses are defined by verb-final word order and are usually introduced by conjunctions, relative pronouns, or specific clause markers.
In this overview, you will learn:
what subordinate clauses are and how they differ from main clauses
which structural features all subordinate clauses share
how different types of subordinate clauses function
how subordinate clauses integrate into larger sentence structures
This overview gives English-speaking learners a clear framework for understanding subordinate clauses as a system rather than as isolated constructions.