The comma is one of several punctuation characters. It serves to separate related thoughts or ideas within complex statements. Grammarians call such related thoughts or ideas clauses<\/b>. German comma rules vary from English ones. Therefore, we should have a closer look at them.<\/p>\n
There are two basic sentence types in German, which you may already know from English or any other language: main clauses<\/b><\/span> and subordinate clauses<\/b><\/span>. Main clauses are also known as independent clauses<\/b><\/span>.\u00a0 Subordinate clauses are also knows as dependent clauses<\/b><\/span>. As the names imply, independent clauses can stand alone, whereas dependent clauses cannot stand alone because they literally depend on main clauses.<\/p>\n The main difference between independent and dependent clauses is that independent clauses contain a subject (e.g., a noun) and a predicate (i.e., a verb or verb group), that\u2019s why they can stand alone. In contrast, dependent clauses do not necessarily contain a subject but at least a predicate. Further, a main clause expresses the basic idea of a statement, whereas a subordinate clause gives any kind of additional information.<\/p>\n Main clauses are usually marked with full stops (.) but in German it is also possible to separate main clauses with commas \u2013 when it\u2019s suitable.<\/p>\n 1. Der Lehrer spricht, die Sch\u00fcler h\u00f6ren zu. \u2013 The teacher is speaking, the students are listening.<\/p>\n 2. Sabine trinkt ein Glas Wein, Tobias trink ein Bier. \u2013 Sabine is drinking a glass of wine, Tobias is drinking beer.<\/p>\n 3. Das Kind spielt, die Mutter sp\u00fclt Geschirr. \u2013 The child is playing, the mother is doing the dishes.<\/p>\n 4. Frau Schr\u00f6der liest ein Buch, Herr Schr\u00f6der schaut Fernsehen. \u2013 Frau Schr\u00f6der is reading a book, Herr Schr\u00f6der is watching TV.<\/p>\n Usually, statements like above are linked with the conjunction \u201cund\u201d (and) in order to realize a smoother flow of speech. In such cases, the conjunction \u201cund\u201d normally replaces the comma. Nevertheless, you can put a comma here in order to mark a break.<\/p>\n 5. Der Lehrer spricht (,) und die Sch\u00fcler h\u00f6ren zu. \u2013 The teacher is speaking, the students are listening.<\/p>\n 6. Sabine trinkt ein Glas Wein (,) und Tobias trink ein Bier. \u2013 Sabine is drinking a glass of wine, Tobias is drinking beer.<\/p>\n 7. Das Kind spielt (,) und die Mutter sp\u00fclt Geschirr. \u2013 The child is playing, the mother is doing the dishes.<\/p>\n 8. Frau Schr\u00f6der liest ein Buch (,) und Herr Schr\u00f6der schaut Fernsehen. \u2013 Frau Schr\u00f6der is reading a book, Herr Schr\u00f6der is watching TV.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To be continued \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The comma is one of several punctuation characters. It serves to separate related thoughts or ideas within complex statements. Grammarians call such related thoughts or ideas clauses. German comma rules vary from English ones. Therefore, we should have a closer look at them. There are two basic sentence types in German, which you may already…<\/p>\n