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I am currently learning German and I am having a bit of trouble with word order, especially with the two words es and ist. For example, contrast the following sentences:

Es ist eine Katze.
Manchmal ist es kalt.

I really don’t know what rules there are especially for these cases. A quick search on Google didn’t yield any rules and I’m having a hard time figuring out which to use when.

So the question is: When do you have to use es ist, when do you have to use ist es?

Wrzlprmft
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JackWhiteIII
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  • I voted duplicate because all that's needed is to exchange "ist" for "gibt" – Emanuel Mar 10 '15 at 22:47
  • @Emanuel: Agreed. I haven't been with the site long enough to recognize the duplicate or I wouldn't have put an answer. Can we merge them somehow? – Stephie Mar 11 '15 at 05:41
  • @Stephie... I don't think so... but we could add in a reference to this question in the other one. – Emanuel Mar 11 '15 at 10:34
  • Would be interesting to know (@Takkat) if closed questions get indexed by search engines or not. – Emanuel Mar 11 '15 at 10:35
  • @Emanuel... I could always copy-paste my answer to the older question. But that feels kind of stupid. I just asked because that kind of moving answers was done over on parenting SE (with an answer of mine, that's how I know), so it seems technically possible. Oh, what the h*ck, it's fine as it is. – Stephie Mar 11 '15 at 10:43

2 Answers2

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In a German "Hauptsatz" (main clause), the flexed verb goes in the second position – counting grammatical units, not words.

Both of your examples follow this pattern:

  1. [Es] [ist] [eine Katze].
  2. [Manchmal] [ist] [es] [kalt].

Frequently, but not necessarily, the subject takes the first position in a sentence, like in your first example. But because in your second sentence the first position is taken by manchmal, the ist (verb/predicate) precedes the subject es.

An example where the first grammatical element is much longer:

[Die Zähne nach dem Essen zu putzen] [verringert] [das Risiko von Karies].

Side note (1):
In subordinate clauses ("Nebensatz"), the flexed verb comes last. This is one reason why learners sometimes struggle with spoken language: There may be a lot of information before the verb reveals what really happens. Example, based on your first sentence:

Es ist eine Katze, [die] [letzte Woche] [auf einer Ausstellung] [ganz überraschend] [einen Sonderpreis] [für ihr schönes Fell] [bekam].

You could write the exact same sentence and just use another verb - and your listener knows only after the whole sentence is spoken, what really happens:

Es ist eine Katze, [die] [letzte Woche] [auf einer Ausstellung] [ganz überraschend] [einen Sonderpreis] [für ihr schönes Fell] [ablehnte].

Side note (2):
German has two kinds of questions.

  • "Open" questions that use an interrogative word in the first place, followed by the flexed verb in position 2, just like main clauses. Here, the interrogative word marks the question as such.

    [Wo] [ist] [die Katze]?

  • "Closed" questions (often referred as yes/no questions) have no interrogative word, but can be recognized by the verb in the first position:

    [Ist] [die Katze] [da]?

Em1
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Stephie
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  • Thank you, that was actually really simple to understand and also made clear how I can cope with this issue in a much longer sentence. – JackWhiteIII Mar 10 '15 at 19:01
  • Ard you sure that “flexed” is correct here? I could only find “inflected”. I am not good on English grammar terms, though. – Carsten S Mar 29 '15 at 11:22
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In a standard main sentence, the predicate follows the subject (including its articles, pronouns and adjectives). Whenever you choose not to start the main sentence with the subject, you have to put it after the predicate. This does not necessarily mean starting the sentence with the verb; it means starting it with whatever word needs to be emphasized in relation to the subject (notwithstanding that the verb/predicate is the real core of a sentence, according to valency theory). Changing the "default" word order definitely adds significance regarding the content. You can put in front:

  1. The predicate, in a sentence asking if an action is taking place:

    Kommst du jetzt endlich? Hat sie das Auto gekauft?

  2. An adjective, if it carries the emphasis of the sentence:

    Edel sei der Mensch, hilfreich und gut.

  3. An adverb to emphasize the verb:

    Schnell machte er das Tor zu.

  4. To emphasize a condition of time, location, etc.:

    Gestern hätte ich dir noch helfen können.
    Auf dem Gletscher bekommen Sie leicht einen Sonnenbrand.
    Wegen der Streiterei hatte er keine Lust mehr zu bleiben.

As always, there is an exception to that rule; if the object or one of the objects is a reflexive pronoun, it is inserted directly after the predicate:

Gestern hat sich etwas ereignet, mit dem niemand gerechnet hat. Noch nie wurde mir so ein Streich gespielt.

This should be quite a solid rule of thumb which can solve your problems with es ist as well:

Es ist schön hier.
Ist es schön bei dir?
Draußen ist es wärmer als im Haus.
Kalt ist es hier, findest du nicht?

Martin Schwehla
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    Why so complicated? Just say: "Put the verb in the second position; except for questions where it has to be in the first position." – Em1 Mar 10 '15 at 18:57
  • @Em1 And where do I put the subject, and why? And why isn't the verb in the first position in the question "Wo ist es"? That's why I think the answer is just as simple or complicated as the matter itself. – Martin Schwehla Mar 10 '15 at 19:56
  • I disagree strongly with the whole first paragraph! First off, it's a myth that the subject comes either first or third and learner who learn this "rule" ALYWAYS get confused later on. Second, the notion that what's in the first position is more important than the subject is an even bigger myth and even less correct. "Heute mich dein Chef angerufen." The most important element is "Chef". The first position does NOT indicate importance! Saying it does is essentially teaching wrong stuff. -1 – Emanuel Mar 10 '15 at 22:52
  • @Emanuel By "more important" I didn't mean "absolutely more important" than the subject (because the subject is important by itself and doesn't need any help), but reorganizing the sentence increases the weight of a constituent which is usually second in line to subject and predicate. I adjusted this in my answer. In general, I ask you to be precise when casting a verdict. I didn't say the subject always comes either first or third, but that you have to put it after the predicate if you choose not to have it in standard position, which is first. (continued) – Martin Schwehla Mar 11 '15 at 08:13
  • @Emanuel That is not the same, and if this is a myth all of your examples in your "gibt es" answer are purely mythological, because they all follow this rule. However, the example in your comment drew my attention to the question of reflexive pronouns which definitely break that rule, I fixed that too in my answer. – Martin Schwehla Mar 11 '15 at 08:13
  • point taken on the "after". I did indeed read it as "right after". Anyway, I still disagree with other stuff. Putting "heute" in front pretty much never increases any weight of anything. Compare "Meine Mutter hat mich heute angerufen" and "Heute hat mich meine Mutter angerufen". It's hard to read it in a neutral way and emphasis can change everything but by default, the late "heute" has more weight simply because it's late. If you want to know more about that you may want to check out the newest "Duden - DIe Grammatik" where you can find an excellent treatment of word order. ctd. – Emanuel Mar 11 '15 at 10:41
  • ... other than that I advise against using the term "predicate". The predicate in English (the more common reading nowadays, as I understand it) is "everything but the subject". If you say "subject after predicate" the subject should be at the end of a sentence. What you mean by predicate is the "finite verb" (though I think you know that). – Emanuel Mar 11 '15 at 10:44
  • Also... there are PLENTY exception because it's not a rule." Gestern nacht wurden zum ersten Mal seit drei Jahrzehnten in Berliner Wäldern wieder Wölfe gesehen". This cannot be generalized to all passive sentences and it also depends on wether the subject is a pronoun or not. "Gestern wurde sie mit einem Eis am Alexanderplatz gesehen.". Anothers examples without passive "Jetzt steht für uns die nächsten Wochen erstmal X im Mittelpunkt", "Während ich im Urlaub war, sind auf meinem Balkon leider alle Blumen vertrocknet." Newspapers are actually full of these things. – Emanuel Mar 11 '15 at 10:49
  • @Emanuel Then why do we change the word order at all? We do it because we want to direct the attention of the reader. Whether they comply to that is another question. – Martin Schwehla Mar 11 '15 at 11:05
  • Yes, we do change word order for emphasis. The point is that every sentence has a different default. What's the norm for one sentence can be super odd for another. And it's enough to swap full nouns for pronouns to get a completely different default. – Emanuel Mar 11 '15 at 11:11
  • @Emanuel I'm sorry I don't understand the meaning of "default" in this context. As to your remark about the term "predicate", there are concepts understanding it this way (to be precise, as the part of the sentence complementary to the subject giving a statement about it), but those are, as you may concede, not really satisfying when it comes to discussing the word order in a sentence. Thus, when I use the term "predicate" in this context, I mean the verbal complex as described in http://hypermedia.ids-mannheim.de/call/public/termwb.ansicht?v_id=107. – Martin Schwehla Mar 12 '15 at 10:21
  • Well, that's a link for the German version of grammar jargon. The problem is that definitions vary across languages. Take a look at the English defitions here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicate_%28grammar%29 based on that the predicate of a sentence "Gestern habe ich ein Buch gekauft" would be "habe gekauft". Now if I put my subject after that it is at the end. Predicate is just not the right word in this context. As for the "default".... by "default" I mean the order(s) that creates the least tension. ctd. – Emanuel Mar 12 '15 at 22:38
  • The sentences "Ich habe es meiner Schwester gegeben" and "Ich habe ihr ein Buch gegeben" consist of the same constituents. However, they have a different "default" order. I can change that order and say "Ich habe meiner Schwester es gegeben" but now we're introducing tension because we deviate from the default. – Emanuel Mar 12 '15 at 22:40
  • @Emanuel The terminology of grammar theories is not a proper basis for discussing practical questions for learners of German or English. Why should we talk about a "predicator" instead of "predicate", when we all learned at school that the main parts of the sentence are subject, predicate and object, and that's how people who ask questions like the one here are most likely to understand it. "Default" means "the lack of something", and "by default" means a placeholder we can use if we don't find a proper individual element. Your examples just show shifting emphasis by changing the word order. – Martin Schwehla Mar 13 '15 at 07:45
  • That's what we learned in a German/Austrian school. You cannot generalize that to English schools unless you've received your basic education there. Also, most people don't understand "predicate" to begin with, never mind the precise definition. I really don't understand why you keep insisting on using a term that is not helpful AND wrong in this context. – Emanuel Mar 13 '15 at 16:03
  • @Emanuel Because, as a final remark, I happen not to approve of your arguments, and you don't approve of mine; so be it. There are many discussions and, on scholarly level, disputes without a result, and many of them founder on conflicting terminology and concepts. – Martin Schwehla Mar 14 '15 at 08:43