By
Martin L. Loeff ler
 A sentence is made up of only two things.
A subject (Nominative)
One conjugated verb based on the subject
 It may contain two other sentence structure items.
A direct object (Accusative)
An indirect object (Dative)
 It may contain other additional structures that are not part
of the sentence.
One or more prepositional phrases.
 It may contain other items like helping verbs, past
participles or adverbs.
Can, Must, Eaten, Gone, Sideways etc.
 I give
 You walk
 He talks
Singular
Conjugation
 She rides
 It holds
 We work
 You swim
 They buy
Plural
Conjugation
 Who or What is doing the action generally will find
you the subject.
 It is located either before or after the conjugated verb
with three exceptions.
1. Genitive Case
2. Relative Clause
3. Subordinate Clause
 I
sub.
give
the / cake.
verb
def. art. / direct obj.
There is only one subject, one verb and one direct
object. Each one is part of the basic sentence
structure.
She
rides
the / horse.
Who?
does what?
Whom? / What?
 A direct object may by found by asking whom or what.
However I have found that by asking this question.
What is the “action verb” force on or what does it
impact.
She plays the guitar.
 “Plays impacts or is forced on the guitar or she?” It is
forced or impacts the guitar otherwise we would be
playing she.
 She
sub.
gives
the mother
the cake.
verb
Indirect obj.
direct obj.
You may not add anything else to this structure.
Items like “for the mother” or “to the mother”
make the indirect object a prepositional phrase.
Is the meaning the same? Yes, but it is not an
indirect object.
 They
Who?
buy
the boy
does what?
To/for Whom?
a game.
Whom? / What?
 An indirect Object may by found by asking to/for
whom is the action happening. The verb does not
impact it.
She buys the daughter a car.
Indirect Obj.: To/For Whom is the car bought?
 You bought my mother the flowers with your money.
Sub. Verb.
Ind. Obj.
Dir. Obj.
Prep. Phrase (Dative)
You may add as many prepositional phrases as you would
like. They will not impact the basic four components
(Subject, Verb, Dir. Obj., Ind. Obj.) of a sentence. In
German, each will have its own case based on the
preposition preceding it and or meaning of the sentence.
 I buy
 I buy the car
 I buy the mother the car
Anything else added to these three sentences and its
maximum four components is additional material not
necessarily needed to convey the meaning but
supports or emphasizes the meaning.
 I buy the mother the car with money
 I buy the old mother the red car with her money from
the sale of the house.
 I buy the old mother, who lives with me, the red car,
which is her favorite, with her money from the sale of
the beautiful house.
All of this is what I like to call fluff but the basic
sentence is still…….
 I buy the old mother, who lives with me, the red car,
which is her favorite, with her money from the sale of
the beautiful house.
Each one of the slides could be converted to German
and would make sense. The sentence structure stays
the same. There are some rules to abide by that do
impact the word order. If the direct object
(Accusative) is a noun, it follows the indirect object. If
the direct object is a personal pronoun, it precedes the
indirect object (Dative). However the meaning of the
sentence will still be conveyed regardless of position.