You know the words; the hard part is knowing where to put them. German lets adverbs land in several positions, but it has a clear default order, and that order is almost the mirror image of English. The memory hook is TeKaMoLo — Temporal, Kausal, Modal, Lokal — and this page applies it specifically to adverbs: how multiple adverbs line up in the middle of the clause, why sentence adverbs jump to the front of that lineup, why pronouns get there first, and what happens when you pull one adverb out to the very front of the sentence for emphasis.
The default Mittelfeld order: TeKaMoLo
When several adverbs sit in the Mittelfeld — the stretch between the conjugated verb (position two) and any clause-final verb part — German prefers them in this sequence:
| Slot | Type | Question | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Te | Temporal | When? | heute, gestern, oft, gleich |
| Ka | Kausal | Why? | deshalb, wegen des Wetters |
| Mo | Modal | How? | schnell, leise, gern, zu Fuß |
| Lo | Lokal | Where? / Where to? | hier, dort, nach Hause |
Ich gehe heute wegen des Wetters schnell nach Hause.
I'm going home quickly today because of the weather. (Te: heute / Ka: wegen des Wetters / Mo: schnell / Lo: nach Hause)
That one sentence is the whole rule. heute (when), wegen des Wetters (why), schnell (how), nach Hause (where) — read in exactly the TeKaMoLo order. Drop any of them and the rest keep their relative position:
Wir treffen uns morgen kurz im Café.
We'll meet briefly at the café tomorrow. (Te: morgen / Mo: kurz / Lo: im Café)
Sie fährt jeden Tag mit dem Rad zur Arbeit.
She rides her bike to work every day. (Te: jeden Tag / Mo: mit dem Rad / Lo: zur Arbeit)
The headline contrast: time before place
The single most useful takeaway is Te before Lo — German puts time before place, and English does the opposite. "I'm going home today" lists the place first, the day last. German flips it: heute nach Hause — today, home.
Ich fahre heute nach Hause.
I'm going home today. (German: time 'heute' first, then place 'nach Hause')
Sie kommt um acht ins Büro.
She comes to the office at eight. (time before place again)
Sentence adverbs sit early — outside TeKaMoLo
Some adverbs do not describe when, why, how, or where the action happens. They comment on the whole proposition — the speaker's stance toward the entire statement. These are sentence adverbs: leider (unfortunately), wahrscheinlich (probably), vielleicht (maybe), natürlich (of course), hoffentlich (hopefully). Because they scope over everything, they land early in the Mittelfeld, before the manner and place adverbs — typically right after the subject (and after any pronouns).
Ich komme leider heute nicht zur Party.
Unfortunately I can't come to the party today. (sentence adverb 'leider' before the temporal 'heute')
Wir fahren wahrscheinlich morgen mit dem Zug nach Köln.
We'll probably take the train to Cologne tomorrow. (sentence adverb first, then Te–Mo–Lo)
The logic is scope: a sentence adverb is a comment on the whole event, so German positions it at the edge of the event description, before the individual circumstantial details begin. You can hear the difference if you imagine the adverb in quotation marks around the rest of the clause: leider [komme ich heute nicht zur Party].
Pronouns come before all adverbs
There is one element that beats even the temporal adverb to the front of the Mittelfeld: a pronoun object. Short, already-known pronouns crowd toward the left, right after the finite verb, jumping ahead of every adverbial.
Ich gebe es dir morgen zurück.
I'll give it back to you tomorrow. (pronouns 'es', 'dir' before the temporal 'morgen')
Er hat mich gestern im Supermarkt gesehen.
He saw me at the supermarket yesterday. (pronoun 'mich' before Te 'gestern' and Lo 'im Supermarkt')
The principle behind this is "known before new": a pronoun refers to something already in play, so German treats it as the most given, lightest element and pulls it as far left as possible — even ahead of when the action happened.
Fronting: pull one adverb into the Vorfeld for emphasis
German's verb-second rule means exactly one constituent sits before the conjugated verb, in the Vorfeld (the front field). You can promote any single adverb into that slot to emphasize it or to link the sentence to what came before. When you do, that adverb leaves the Mittelfeld, and the remaining adverbs keep their TeKaMoLo order behind the verb.
Heute gehe ich wegen des Wetters schnell nach Hause.
Today I'm going home quickly because of the weather. (the temporal is fronted; Ka–Mo–Lo stay in order)
Nach Hause fahre ich heute mit dem Bus.
Home — that's where I'm heading today, by bus. (place fronted for contrast)
Note what does not change: the verb stays glued to position two, and the subject hops behind it (gehe ich, fahre ich) — this is the famous inversion triggered by anything other than the subject occupying the Vorfeld. Fronting is a choice, not a rule: it adds emphasis or cohesion. If you have no special reason, leave the adverb in its TeKaMoLo slot, which is the neutral, unmarked option.
A note on nicht
The negator nicht, when it negates the whole clause, lands late in the Mittelfeld — after the TeKaMoLo adverbs but before the clause-final verb part and before any place phrase that completes the verb's meaning. It does not behave like an ordinary adverbial in TeKaMoLo; its placement deserves its own treatment, but the rule of thumb is that sentence negation drifts to the right.
Ich fahre heute leider nicht nach Köln.
Unfortunately I'm not going to Cologne today. ('nicht' comes late, just before the place phrase)
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich gehe nach Hause heute.
Incorrect — German is time-before-place; 'heute' must precede 'nach Hause.'
✅ Ich gehe heute nach Hause.
I'm going home today.
The classic transfer error, straight from English place-before-time order. Re-sequence "home today" to heute nach Hause.
❌ Sie fährt nach Köln schnell.
Incorrect — manner (Mo) comes before place (Lo): schnell before nach Köln.
✅ Sie fährt schnell nach Köln.
She's driving to Cologne quickly.
Misordering manner and place. In TeKaMoLo, Mo precedes Lo, so how comes before where.
❌ Er hat gestern mich angerufen.
Incorrect — the pronoun 'mich' should come before the temporal adverb 'gestern.'
✅ Er hat mich gestern angerufen.
He called me yesterday.
Letting a temporal adverb beat a pronoun. Pronouns crowd to the very front of the Mittelfeld, ahead of all adverbials.
❌ Heute leider ich kann nicht kommen.
Incorrect — only one element may precede the verb; the verb must stay in position two.
✅ Heute kann ich leider nicht kommen.
Today, unfortunately, I can't come.
Fronting two things and pushing the verb out of second position. Front heute alone; the verb kann follows immediately, then the subject, then the sentence adverb leider.
❌ Wir fahren mit dem Zug wahrscheinlich morgen.
Awkward — the sentence adverb 'wahrscheinlich' should sit early, before the manner and time details.
✅ Wir fahren wahrscheinlich morgen mit dem Zug.
We'll probably take the train tomorrow.
Burying the sentence adverb among the circumstantials. wahrscheinlich comments on the whole event, so it sits early, ahead of the TeKaMoLo material.
Key Takeaways
- Multiple adverbs in the Mittelfeld follow the TeKaMoLo default: Temporal – Kausal – Modal – Lokal.
- The headline rule is time before place — the reverse of English.
- Sentence adverbs (leider, wahrscheinlich) scope over the whole clause and sit early, ahead of the TeKaMoLo adverbs.
- Pronoun objects come before all adverbs, crowding to the front of the Mittelfeld.
- You can front one adverb into the Vorfeld for emphasis; the verb stays in position two and the rest keep TeKaMoLo order.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- The Mittelfeld and TeKaMoLo OrderingB1 — How adverbials and objects line up in the middle of a German clause — the default Temporal–Kausal–Modal–Lokal sequence and why it reverses English order.
- Adverbs of TimeA2 — German time adverbs — heute, morgen, jetzt, bald, oft, immer, damals — plus the morgen/der Morgen/morgens puzzle, the habitual -s adverbs (montags, abends), and why time comes before place.
- Sentence Adverbs (leider, vielleicht, hoffentlich)B1 — Adverbs that comment on the whole sentence — leider, vielleicht, wahrscheinlich, hoffentlich — including why fronting them still forces verb-second inversion and how hoffentlich packs 'I hope that' into one word.
- Word Order of Object PronounsB1 — When two objects meet: nouns put dative before accusative, but pronouns flip to accusative before dative, and pronouns always precede nouns.
- The Vorfeld: What Can Come FirstB1 — The slot before the finite verb is German's topic spotlight — what you put there signals emphasis, and exactly one constituent fits.