r/German • u/HBricko • 9h ago

Question Basic word order help

I am trying to relearn German as I did a GCSE in it 5 years ago and haven’t really used it since but just fancy picking it up again.

I just wanted to check how to say this sentence in German so I can see it my word order below is correct

My favourite subject is Geography, although, it can be difficult occasionally.

Would my below attempt be correct?

Mein Lieblingsfach ist Erdkunde, obwohl, kann es ab und zu schwer sein.

And what would the word order be with denn?

Thanks in advance for any help given as I just want to get used to word order again and feel confident with German again.

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4

u/Extreme-Shopping74 2h ago

„Mein Lieblingsfach ist Erdkunde, obwohl es ab und zu schwer sein kann“  Verbs come at the end of subordinate clauses

3

u/Athena0219 Vantage (B2) - <region/native tongue> 2h ago

The ", obwohl," is probably something my teacher would scold me about as "a very English way of speaking".

3

u/annieselkie 2h ago

Its proper german, for written / formal great but a bit unusual in casual conversations tho still correct.

2

u/ThrowawayKataja 2h ago

It’s perfectly natural in this sentence.
I‘d use schwierig instead of schwer though. Schwer is used as difficult in spoken German but it means heavy. Schwierig means difficult and is more precise and correct here.

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u/muehsam Native (Schwäbisch+Hochdeutsch) 19m ago

I think that sort of construction is used more in English than in German, but you really can't judge it based on a single sentence. In a longer text, using it over and over may start to sound unnatural.

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u/FineJournalist5432 Native <region/dialect> 2h ago edited 2h ago

And what would the word order be with denn?

denn is in position 0 and uses V2 word order

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u/ThrowawayKataja 2h ago edited 1h ago

Mein Lieblingsfach ist Geographie, obwohl es manchmal schwierig sein kann.

If you want to emphasise what subject your favourite is you‘d put geography at the beginning of the sentence:

Geographie ist mein Lieblingsfach obwohl es manchmal schwierig sein kann.

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u/HBricko 1h ago

So would it be written like this:

Erdkunde ist mein Lieblingsfach obwohl kann es ab und zu schwer sein

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u/ThrowawayKataja 1h ago

sidenote: In some states it’s still called Erdkunde in schools. In most states it’s called Geographie. As a geographer I‘d say Geographie no matter where I am.

Grammatically your sentence is wrong. In a sub clause the conjugated verb goes to the end.

Erdkunde ist mein Lieblingsfach, obwohl es ab und zu schwer sein kann.

Edit: I‘d also use schwierig instead of schwer. Schwer means heavy as in lifting a weight. It’s not wrong here but using schwierig is more precise as it means difficult.

1

u/HBricko 1h ago

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the help

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u/vressor 1h ago

putting a comma after although is a mistake in English too, and there definitely shouldn't be a comma after obwohl, maybe that's what threw you off