German Sentence Structure Secrets 🇩🇪 Where Does “Can” Go? ✅

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Now, I'd like to point out two things.

[00:00:02]First, modal verbs usually come with a second verb in the sentence, and this second verb will be in the end of the sentence.

[00:00:11]As you can see in the first example, you have the verb können and the second verb essen in its infinitive form at the end.

[00:00:24]The second thing is that in all these examples, you can see that the verb in German always has to be in the second position. So, when you don't start a sentence with a subject, the verb and the subject are inverted.

[00:00:39]For example, hier können Sie Briefmarken kaufen.

[00:00:45]So, here you start the sentence with hier.

[00:00:48]You don't say they can buy stamps. That would be Sie können Briefmarken kaufen.

[00:00:55]But, you start with hier, which is not the subject, so you have to invert the verb and the subject.