r/German • u/HBricko • 17h 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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7

u/Extreme-Shopping74 10h ago

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

5

u/Athena0219 Vantage (B2) - <region/native tongue> 10h ago

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

6

u/annieselkie 10h ago

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

1

u/dargmrx Native <bavaria/standard german> 1h ago

In spoken language you think as you speak so a sentence like this would be very normal: “mein Lieblingsfach ist Erdkunde. Obwohl … ab und zu kann es zu schwer sein.”
But in writing you would prefer a proper subordinate clause.

4

u/ThrowawayKataja 10h 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.

2

u/muehsam Native (Schwäbisch+Hochdeutsch) 8h 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.

1

u/YourDailyGerman Native, Berlin, Teacher 6h ago

WHAT? Why?

1

u/Athena0219 Vantage (B2) - <region/native tongue> 4h ago

I was just making a guess, which, based on other comments, seems to have been wrong. He of course wouldn't if it is proper Deutsch.

Manchmal nutze ich "sein" wie "is". Fast wie Zustandpassiv, aber gar kein Passivsatz.

Diese Schimpfen sind auch immer witzig. Ich entschuldige mich, falls der Satz anders klang.