Konjunktionen.
Two families. Two word orders.

A conjunction connects two words, two phrases, or two clauses. In English, that is mostly the whole story. In German, the conjunction also decides something much bigger: whether the verb in the next clause stays in position 2, exactly like a normal sentence, or jumps all the way to the end of the clause.

Two families, one big difference

Every German conjunction belongs to one of two families. The family tells you everything about what happens to the word order that follows.

Family	What happens to the verb	Examples
Coordinating (nebenordnend)	Stays in position 2, normal order	und oder aber denn sondern
Subordinating (unterordnend)	Moves to the very end of the clause	weil dass wenn als ob obwohl

Both families connect two clauses into one sentence. The difference is whether the second clause keeps its normal shape, or gets reorganized around the conjunction.

Coordinating conjunctions: the verb does not move

Five short words make up the coordinating conjunctions, easy to remember with the acronym ADUSO → aber denn und sondern oder. They sit between two complete sentences, position 0, and touch nothing. Each clause keeps its own subject in position 1 and its own verb in position 2.

Conjunction	Meaning	Example
und	and	Ich trinkeKaffee und du trinkstTee.
oder	or	Trinkst du Kaffee oder trinkst du Tee?
aber	but	Ich magKaffee, aber ich trinke lieber Tee.
denn	because, for	Ich bleibe zu Hause, denn ich bin krank.
sondern	but rather (after a negation)	Ich trinke nicht Kaffee, sondern Tee.

sondern only appears after a negated clause, when the second part corrects or replaces the first. aber works everywhere else a contrast is needed, negated or not.

Comma rules differ inside ADUSO itself: before aber, denn and sondern a comma is required. Before und and oder, joining two complete sentences, the comma is optional, most writers leave it out.

A closer look at one of these five, including why it behaves so differently from its near twin: denn. The verb stays.

Subordinating conjunctions: the verb goes to the end

Subordinating conjunctions open a subordinate clause that cannot stand on its own. The moment one of these words appears, the conjugated verb leaves position 2 and travels to the very last slot in the clause. A comma always separates the two clauses.

Conjunction	Meaning	Example
dass	that	Ich glaube, dass er Recht hat.
weil	because	Ich lerneDeutsch, weil ich in Berlin arbeite.
wenn	if, whenever	Ich bin froh, wenn du kommst.
als	when (one past event)	Ich war müde, als derFilm begann.
ob	whether, if	Ich weiß nicht, ob er heute kommt.
obwohl	although	Ich bin draußen, obwohl es regnet.
bevor	before	Ich esseetwas, bevor ich arbeite.
nachdem	after	Ich rufedich an, nachdem ich angekommen bin.
während	while	Ich höreMusik, während ich lerne.
damit	so that	Ich lerne oft, damit ich diePrüfung bestehe.

Five of these get a full article of their own: dass. What someone thinks, says, or feels. · weil. The verb goes last. · wenn. When or if, the verb goes last. · als. One moment in the past. · nachdem. The clause that came first.

weil vs. denn: same meaning, different word order

The clearest proof that the family matters more than the meaning → weil and denn both translate as "because." One sends the verb to the end. The other leaves it exactly where it was.

	Family	Verb position	Example
weil	Subordinating	End of clause	..., weil ich in Berlin arbeite.
denn	Coordinating	Position 2	..., denn ich arbeite in Berlin.

The full comparison, side by side: denn. The verb stays.

Two-part conjunctions

A handful of conjunctions come in pairs. The first part announces what is coming, the second part completes it. Both parts belong to the same family as the conjunctions above, and the word order follows the same rules.

Pair	Meaning	Example
entweder ... oder	either ... or	Ich trinke entweder Kaffee oder Tee.
weder ... noch	neither ... nor	Ich mag weder Kaffee noch Tee.
sowohl ... als auch	both ... and	Ich mag sowohl Kaffee als auch Tee.
nicht nur ... sondern auch	not only ... but also	Ich trinke nicht nur Kaffee, sondern auch Tee.

One more pair, je ... desto ("the more ... the more"), is subordinating in its first half and ordinary in its second: the comparative phrase takes position 1, so the verb lands in position 2 and the subject follows it, exactly as after dann or trotzdem.

je clause (verb last)	desto clause (verb first)
Je mehr ich übe,	desto besser werde ich.

Not every connector is a conjunction

Words like trotzdem, deshalb, and dann also link two ideas, and they often get translated the same way as a conjunction. But grammatically they are adverbs: they take up position 1 on their own, which pushes the verb into position 2 right after them, instead of sending it to the end. Same job in the sentence, different family entirely.

The contrast that trips learners up most: trotzdem. Same meaning as obwohl, completely different grammar.