The #1 German Word Order Mistake (Verb Position Explained)

Every year in my German classes, I run into the same problem. Year after year, students make the same mistakes. I’ll ask a simple question like “Was machst du am Wochenende?” and they will answer with nails on the chalkboard, “Am Wochenende ich gehe ins Kino.”

Did you hear what he did wrong? If not, maybe you’re making the same mistake. This is by far the most common mistake among German learners from A1 all the way up to B2. Once you fix this error, every sentence you say in German gets cleaner, clearer, and more natural.

Let’s look at this misshapen IKEA shelf of a sentence again.

Am Wochenende ich gehe ins Kino. - This weekend, I am going to the movies.

As an English speaker, it makes sense. It has all of the parts of a good sentence: a subject, a verb, and some other information. The subject is the one doing something (in this sentence, ich). The verb is the action that is happening (in this sentence, gehe). Am Wochenende represents the time part of the sentence, and ins Kino is the destination (or place).

Regular Word Order in German

Regular word order requires the subject to be first and the verb to go second. After the verb, the typical order is:

• Time
• Manner
• Place

So our original sentence with regular word order would be:

Ich gehe am Wochenende ins Kino. - I am going to the movies this weekend.

What English Does (and German Doesn’t)

In English, when we move the time to the front of the sentence, we simply separate it with a comma and the rest of the sentence stays the same:

I am going to the movies this weekend.
This weekend, I am going to the movies.

The Golden Rule: The Verb Is in Position 2

In German, the verb is in a fixed position. In a simple sentence like this one, that position is #2. This means that no matter if you start the sentence with the subject or the time, you need the verb in second position. For example:

Ich gehe am Wochenende ins Kino. - I am going to the movies this weekend.
Am Wochenende gehe ich ins Kino. - This weekend, I am going to the movies.

Notice that I didn’t say the verb was the second word. I said it was the second item (or part) of the sentence. In this case, there are two words that count as time (am Wochenende). While there are two words, this is only one item before you get to part two: the verb gehe.

More Examples

We’ll start with regular word order (subject first), then switch one of the other elements to the front and see how the rest of the sentence changes.

Ich bin heute müde. - I am tired today.
Heute bin ich müde. - Today, I am tired.

Er besucht uns morgen. - He is visiting us tomorrow.
Morgen besucht er uns. - Tomorrow, he is visiting us.

Ich mache nach der Schule meine Hausaufgaben. - I do my homework after school.
Nach der Schule mache ich meine Hausaufgaben. - After school, I do my homework.

Here we actually have a bit more flexibility. You can swap nach der Schule and meine Hausaufgaben. Then the sentence becomes:

Ich mache meine Hausaufgaben nach der Schule. - I do my homework after school.

Wir fliegen am Donnerstag nach Frankreich. - We are flying to France on Thursday.
Am Donnerstag fliegen wir nach Frankreich. - On Thursday, we are flying to France.

If you want to emphasize the destination instead of the time, you can say:

Nach Frankreich fliegen wir am Donnerstag. - We are flying to France on Thursday.

In English, we can’t easily put the destination first in a natural way. Instead, we rely on vocal emphasis to highlight the destination.

Viele Leute trinken Kaffee in Deutschland. - Many people drink coffee in Germany.
In Deutschland trinken viele Leute Kaffee. - In Germany, many people drink coffee.

A Small Exception: Stacking Elements

As a general rule, you can’t add more than one element before the verb in German. But this is a bit of an exception, because we can stack items if they describe each other.

For example, if I wanted to say “many people in Germany” as the subject in German, I could do that, because the in Germany part acts as a modifier that gives more information about the people. The full sentence becomes:

Viele Leute in Deutschland trinken Kaffee. - Many people in Germany drink coffee.

Want Guided Practice?

If you want guided practice with word order and other core grammar topics, take a look at my Deutschlerner Club. It includes complete A1 and A2 courses plus lots of additional lessons with explanations, exercises, and worksheets to help everything stick. Click here to learn more about the Deutschlerner Club.