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10.4: Subordinate Clause as Sentence Subject

A Foundation Course in Reading German · LibreTexts

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    More often than in English, in German you will encounter subordinate clauses that in fact function as the sentence subject. Identify the subject, verb, and predicate in each of these examples:

    Ob sie mit uns ins Kino gehen darf, bleibt unklar.
    It’s still not clear whether she (will be/is) allowed to go to the movies with us.
    [or:] Whether she (will be/is) allowed to go to the movies with us is not clear.

    Daß sie jetzt mit uns ins Kino geht, ist schön!
    The fact that she is now going with us to the movies is great!
    [or:] It’s great that she is now going with us to the movies!

    Note that there are variations on this structure which you should be equally able to recognize:

    Unklar bleibt, wie wir dahin kommen.
    It’s still unclear how we’re going to get there.

    Es war doch das Beste, daß wir gestern nicht ausgegangen sind.
    It worked out for the best that we didn’t go out yesterday.

    This page titled 10.4: Subordinate Clause as Sentence Subject was last modified on Mon, 22 Feb 2021 23:02:17 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Martin, Neary, Rinaldo, and Woodman.