Word Order - Nouns and Pronouns

The previous lesson demonstrated how to correctly order verbs in a sentence and showed that comprehension of a German sentence relies more on understanding and recognising the cases rather than word order. Word order is much more flexible in German: elements can be moved around in a German sentence (excluding the finite verb) without affecting the overall meaning of a sentence.

However, these elements do tend to come in a typical word order, a 'neutral' word order. When an element is placed outside of the neutral word order, then it is often the case that this element has the effect of being emphasised. Thus, the description of 'neutral' indicates that no element is particularly emphasised, at least not by word order.

This lesson will begin to complicate the simple sentence from the previous lesson and demonstrate one part of the neutral word order, concerning itself with nouns and pronouns.

Starting Off

Here is a simple sentence with only nouns, no pronouns:

  Der Mann gibt der Frau das Buch.

  The man gives the woman the book.

This sentence contains a noun subject, a finite verb, and two noun objects in the neutral word order. Going element by element, we can see that: 

• The first element (der Mann) is the Nominative noun subject. 
• The second element (gibt) is the finite verb, which is virtually always the case in a main clause. 
• The third element (der Frau) is a noun object, specifically the Dative indirect object. 
• The fourth element (das Buch) is a noun object, specifically the Accusative direct object. 

From this, we can see that the noun subject is (very often) the first element of a sentence. Ignoring the finite verb, it is then followed by the indirect object and then finally the direct object.

Thus, the basic word order with a sentence with only nouns is:

Subject (Nom) -> Verb -> Indirect Object (Dat) -> Direct Object (Acc)

Inserting a Pronoun

Each of the nouns can be replaced with an appropriate pronoun, provided it is clear whom or what it is referring to. Because of this, pronouns tend to have less importance to them than other elements in a sentence.

Pronouns tend to precede nouns. Here are three sentences with each one having a different noun replaced with its appropriate pronoun.

  Er gibt der Frau das Buch.

  He gives the woman the book.

  Der Mann gibt ihr das Buch.

  The man gives her the book.

  Der Mann gibt es der Frau.
  The man gives it to the woman.

While the pronouns in the second and third sentence precede the direct and indirect noun object respectively, they do not precede the noun subject when the noun subject is the first element.

Inserting Several Pronouns

Of course, every single noun can be replaced:

  Er gibt es ihr.

  He gives it to her.

From this, we can see that the order of a sentence with only pronouns slightly differs from the order of a sentence with only nouns. Namely, the direct object now precedes the indirect object.

Thus, the basic word order with a sentence with only personal pronouns is:

Subject (Nom) -> Verb -> Direct Object (Acc) -> Indirect Object (Dat)

The Noun Subject and Pronouns

We will add a new element (heute) as the first element. Its sole purpose is to usurp the subject as the first element and it will otherwise be ignored. Initially, this does nothing unexpected:

  Heute gibt der Mann der Frau das Buch. 

  Today, the man gives the woman the book.

As we can see, the basic word order mentioned in the first section holds. Pronouns begin to complicate this. 

As mentioned, the general rule is that pronouns precede nouns. 

  Heute gibt er der Frau das Buch.

  Today, he gives the woman the book.

  Heute gibt ihr der Mann das Buch.

  Today, the man gives her the book.

  Heute gibt es der Mann der Frau.

  Today, the man gives it to the woman.

However, a pronoun object can also go after a noun subject (and only a noun subject), especially when ambiguity is introduced. For example, take this sentence: 

  Heute ruft die Journalistin die Frau an.

  Today, the female journalist calls the woman.

If the direct object (die Frau) is replaced with its pronoun and we follow the general rule, then this sentence may imply the opposite of what we intend: 

  Heute ruft sie die Journalistin an.

  (Possible interpretation: Today, she calls the journalist.) 

To prevent a false interpretation, it is safer to place the pronoun after the noun subject. This sentence will likely be interpreted correctly: 

  Heute ruft die Journalistin sie an.

  Today, the journalist calls the woman.

This also applies to cases with two pronoun objects, even when it is clear by context. For example: 

  Heute gibt der Mann es ihr. 

  Today, the man gives it to her.

Nevertheless, other variants are possible, such as: 

  Heute gibt es der Mann ihr. 

  Heute gibt es ihr der Mann. 

Other Types of Pronouns

So far, only personal pronouns (er, es, ihr, etc.) have been used, but German also has demonstrative pronouns and reflexive pronouns. The rules for these are relatively simple.

Demonstrative pronouns come after personal pronouns, irrespective of their case. For example:

  Heute gibt er mir das.

  Today, he gives me that.

Reflexive pronouns essentially act as if they were personal pronouns and follow the same order (Acc -> Dat). Here is an example with a reflexive verb that can have its reflexive pronoun in either accusative or dative, but with quite different meanings:

  Gestern hat er sich mir vorgestellt.

  He introduced himself to me yesterday.

  Gestern hat er es sich vorgestellt.

  He imagined it yesterday.

As with all pronouns, these pronouns precede noun objects.

Conclusion

This lesson explained the ordering of nouns and pronouns in a relatively simple sentence. To summarise, here are some general rules to live by: 

1. The order of nouns is Subject (Nom) -> Verb -> Indirect Object (Dat) -> Direct Object (Acc) or simply N -> D -> A 
2. The order of pronouns is Subject (Nom) -> Verb -> Direct Object (Acc) -> Indirect Object (Dat) or simply N -> A -> D 
3. Pronouns always precede noun objects. 
4. Pronouns usually go after the noun subject to prevent ambiguity but are not obligated to. 

Further Content about Word Order

Word Order - A Simple Sentence in Detail

Word Order - Nouns and Pronouns (current article) 

Last Updated: 29 April 2018