ABSTRACT
German word order is different to English and it has a different role in determining how sentences are constructed.
English uses word order to identify the subject and the object(s) of the verb. In English, the subject must come rst, before the verb, and the objects after it, in the order indirect object + direct object. In a sentence like
My father has lent our neighbour the old lawnmower
We cannot move the elements round without saying something different, so that, for example, Our neighbour lent my father the old lawnmower has another meaning. In German, various permutations are possible without changing the essential meaning:
•Mein Vater hat unserem Nachbarn den alten Rasenmäher geliehen
• Unserem Nachbarn hat mein Vater den alten Rasenmäher geliehen
•Den alten Rasenmäher hat mein Vater unserem Nachbarn geliehen
• Mein Vater hat den alten Rasenmäher unserem Nachbarn geliehen
In German the case endings, not the word order, tell us who is doing what to whom, i.e. what is the subject and what are the objects. The order of the words and phrases can be changed round to give a different emphasis to the elements without altering the basic meaning. The last variant, for example, stresses who is being lent the lawnmower. In German, the position of the verb is xed, and the other elements can be moved in order to show different emphases.
