Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to correctly form W-questions and yes/no questions, including their respective verb position.

Lesson Explanation

This lesson resolves the special case already hinted at in Part 2, Lesson 2: German question formation follows two distinct patterns, depending on question type.

W-questions begin with a question word: wer, was, wo, wann, warum, wie, welche (who, what, where, when, why, how, which). The question word occupies first position, and the conjugated verb follows in second position — the normal verb-second rule (Part 2, Lesson 2) applies here unchanged, since the question word simply acts as the first sentence element: Wo wohnst du? (Where do you live? — “wohnst” in second position, as expected).

Yes/no questions have no question word, and instead require the conjugated verb to move to FIRST position — the only genuinely real break of the verb-second rule in a German main clause, as already mentioned in Part 2, Lesson 2: Wohnst du hier? (Do you live here? — not “Du wohnst hier?” as a question, even though this would work in English with intonation alone).

A genuinely important detail with modal verbs and complex tenses (Part 1, Lesson 4 and Part 4): the main verb or participle stays at the end of the sentence, even in a question — only the conjugated element moves to first position: Kannst du morgen kommen? (Can you come tomorrow? — “kannst” in front, “kommen” at the end, unchanged from the statement word order).

Practice Questions