1.7 Sentences and clauses

A few other common verbs link the subject with a noun phrase or an adjective in the same way, notably:

These are COPULARVERBS (or simply COPULAS – which just means ‘links’). The complement which follows them is called the PREDICATECOMPLEMENT. The structure of sentences with these verbs is as follows:

bleiben remain heißen be called

scheinen seem werden become

NP nom copula NP nom/ADJ

sein, bleiben, heißen, scheinen and werden are COPULARVERBS. They are used with a noun phrase or adjective – the PREDICATECOMPLEMENT. The noun phrase following these verbs is in the NOMINATIVE case. Copulas and predicate complements are explained in section 8.10.

1.7 Sentences and clauses

It is usual to distinguish between sentences and clauses. A SENTENCE is the longest unit of grammar and, in writing, it ends with a full stop. A sentence may consist of one clause or several clauses.

A CLAUSE is a segment of a sentence with a single FINITEVERB (the verb with an ending that agrees with the subject of the clause or sentence, see 1.2). A MAINCLAUSE can stand on its own and form a sentence. A SUBORDINATECLAUSE is dependent on a main clause and cannot stand on its own.

Some sentences only have one clause, which is always a main clause:

But many sentences have two, three, or even more clauses, each with its own verb. These are called complex sentences. In German, the clauses are usually separated by commas:

Die Prinzessin schlief. An ihrem fünfzehnten Geburtstag traf sie die alte Frau im Turm. The princess slept. On her fifteenth birthday she met the old woman in the tower.

Er weiß,dass sie schläft. Als der Prinz kam, teilte sich die Dornenhecke, und er ging in das Schloss, wo Dornröschen lag. He knows that she is sleeping. When the prince came, the thorny hedge parted and he went into the castle where Sleeping Beauty was lying.