Coordination is where German's love of compression meets its love of precision. At the advanced level, the language does something English simply cannot: it coordinates two long compound words by deleting the shared part and marking the gap with a hyphen — Vor- und Nachteile ("advantages and disadvantages"). This page covers the orthographic device that makes this possible, the broader family of shared-element reductions (right-node raising, shared subjects and objects), and the discipline that governs gapping in genuinely parallel clauses. The basics of gapping the verb are covered on the Ellipsis and Gapping page; here we push into the territory that separates a fluent writer from a native one.
The suspended hyphen: coordinating shared word-parts
This is the single most German-specific device on the page, and the one English speakers most reliably get wrong. When two compounds share a part, German keeps the shared part once and signals the omission elsewhere with a hyphen. Crucially, the hyphen is attached to the stub — the part that stands alone — and it marks exactly where the missing material belongs.
When the compounds share the second element (the head), you delete the head from the first compound and leave a trailing hyphen:
Die Vor- und Nachteile liegen auf der Hand.
The advantages and disadvantages are obvious. 'Vorteile' loses its head, leaving 'Vor-'; '-teile' survives once in 'Nachteile'. (neutral/written)
Wir verkaufen Kinder- und Jugendbücher.
We sell children's and young-adult books. The shared head '-bücher' appears once; 'Kinder-' carries the suspended hyphen. (neutral)
The same trailing-hyphen logic applies to prefixed verbs that share the verb stem (the head):
Man kann die Datei hoch- und herunterladen.
You can upload and download the file. The shared stem '-laden' survives once on 'herunterladen'; the first item is reduced to 'hoch-' with a trailing suspending hyphen. (neutral/technical)
Bitte beim Ein- und Aussteigen Vorsicht walten lassen.
Please take care when getting on and off. The shared head '-steigen' survives on 'Aussteigen'; 'Ein-' carries the trailing hyphen. (formal — typical of public-transport announcements)
Less often, the compounds share the first element instead. Then you keep it once on the first item and reduce the later item, leaving a leading hyphen on its stub:
Der Haupteingang und der -ausgang sind beschildert.
The main entrance and the main exit are signposted. The shared first part 'Haupt-' is stated once; the second item is reduced to '-ausgang' with a leading suspending hyphen. (neutral/written)
This works for nouns, prefixed verbs, and adjectives alike, and it scales to three or more items:
Das Gesetz regelt An-, Ab- und Ummeldungen.
The law governs registrations, deregistrations and changes of address. Three shared heads ('-meldungen'), three suspended stubs. (formal/official)
Die Hin- und Rückfahrt kostet zusammen 40 Euro.
The outward and return journey cost 40 euros together. '-fahrt' is shared; 'Hin-' is suspended. (neutral)
Sie ist sowohl ein- als auch zweisprachig aufgewachsen.
She grew up both mono- and bilingual. The shared head '-sprachig' appears once. (neutral/written)
Why does German tolerate this when English does not? Because German compounds are written as single orthographic words with no spaces. Nachteile is one word; Vor- und Nachteile compresses two one-word compounds. English writes its compounds as separate words or with spaces ("disadvantages", "young-adult books"), so there is nothing tidy to suspend — English just repeats or rephrases ("pros and cons", "upload and download"). The hyphen device is a direct consequence of solid compounding.
Right-node raising: sharing the tail of a clause
The same logic that lets German share a word-final element across compounds lets it share a clause-final element across whole clauses. This is right-node raising: two coordinated clauses share their final constituent, which is stated only once, at the very end.
Er hat geplant, und sie hat durchgeführt, was wir besprochen hatten.
He planned, and she carried out, what we had discussed. The shared object clause 'was wir besprochen hatten' is stated once, at the end. (formal/written)
Ich respektiere, aber teile nicht seine Meinung.
I respect but do not share his opinion. The shared object 'seine Meinung' is raised to the end and stated once. (formal)
German is especially comfortable with this because its verb-bracket (Satzklammer) naturally pushes heavy material rightward; sharing that rightmost slot feels organic. Note that the two verbs must genuinely take the same case and the same form of the shared element — respektieren and teilen both take an accusative object, so seine Meinung serves both. If the verbs governed different cases, the sharing would collapse and you would have to spell both out.
Shared subjects and objects in coordination
Within a single coordinated sentence, German freely deletes a repeated subject or object — but the deletion is licensed only when the surviving structure leaves the grammatical role unambiguous, which German's case marking usually guarantees.
Sie öffnete die Tür, [sie] trat ein und [sie] schloss sie wieder.
She opened the door, [she] stepped in and [she] closed it again. The repeated subject 'sie' is dropped after the first clause. (neutral)
Den Antrag müssen Sie ausfüllen, [den Antrag] unterschreiben und [den Antrag] einreichen.
The application you must fill out, [it] sign and [it] submit. The shared accusative object is deleted in the later clauses. (formal/official)
The cross-linguistic catch: English deletes shared subjects in coordination too ("she opened the door and stepped in"), but English forbids deleting a shared subject when the second clause has a different word order trigger. German is stricter still in the V2 verb-second system — the shared subject can be dropped only when the second conjunct would have had the subject in the same position. This is why Heute gehe ich einkaufen und kaufe Brot works (subject dropped, verb-first feel preserved) while a naive deletion across a fronted adverbial can fail.
Gapping in genuinely parallel clauses
Building on the basic gapping covered in Ellipsis and Gapping, the advanced requirement is parallelism: the gapped clause must mirror the structure of the antecedent slot for slot. The surviving remnants pair up with the corresponding elements in the first clause, and case marking keeps the pairing legible.
Ich nehme den Tee, du den Kaffee.
I'll have the tea, you [have] the coffee. The verb 'nehme' is gapped; 'du' pairs with 'ich', 'den Kaffee' with 'den Tee'. (informal/neutral)
Der eine wählte das Risiko, der andere die Sicherheit.
The one chose risk, the other [chose] safety. Perfect slot-for-slot parallelism licenses the gap. (literary/neutral)
In Hamburg regnet es, in München schneit es.
In Hamburg it's raining, in Munich it's snowing. Here the verbs differ, so nothing is gapped — but the parallel framing makes the contrast read as a single thought. (neutral)
Notice the last example: when the verbs are different, you cannot gap (there is no shared element to delete), but the parallel architecture still creates the rhetorical effect. Gapping proper requires an identical verb; parallelism merely requires matching shape.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eingang und Ausgang sind getrennt.
Not wrong, but a native writer would suspend the shared head.
✅ Ein- und Ausgang sind getrennt.
Entrance and exit are separate. The shared head '-gang' is suspended with a hyphen. (neutral)
❌ Vorteile und Nachteile
Incorrect for formal writing — the shared '-teile' should be suspended, not repeated.
✅ Vor- und Nachteile
Advantages and disadvantages. (neutral/written)
❌ Vor und Nachteile
Incorrect — the suspending hyphen on 'Vor-' is missing; without it the reader cannot see that a head was deleted.
✅ Vor- und Nachteile
Advantages and disadvantages. The hyphen on 'Vor-' marks the omitted '-teile'. (neutral)
❌ Man kann die Datei hochladen und herunter.
Incorrect over-deletion — '-laden' cannot be left dangling on 'herunter' without the suspending hyphen.
✅ Man kann die Datei hoch- und herunterladen.
You can upload and download the file. The shared stem '-laden' is suspended onto 'hoch-'. (neutral/technical)
❌ Ich respektiere seine Meinung, aber teile nicht.
Incorrect — 'teilen' is left without its object; you cannot strand it. Either repeat the object or use right-node raising.
✅ Ich respektiere, aber teile nicht seine Meinung.
I respect but do not share his opinion. The shared object is raised to the end. (formal)
Key Takeaways
- German coordinates shared word-parts by deleting the repeated element and marking the gap with a hyphen: trailing hyphen for a deleted head on the earlier item (Vor- und Nachteile, hoch- und herunterladen), leading hyphen for a deleted first part on the later item (Haupteingang und -ausgang).
- This device exists because German compounds are solid single words — English has nothing equivalent and simply repeats or rephrases.
- Right-node raising shares a clause-final constituent across coordinated clauses, but only when both verbs govern the same case and form.
- Gapping requires an identical verb and strict slot-for-slot parallelism; case marking keeps the surviving remnants unambiguous.
- Over-deletion — stranding a stem or object without the licensing hyphen or shared structure — is the classic advanced error.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Ellipsis and GappingC1 — How German omits recoverable material — gapping the shared verb in coordinated clauses, elliptical answers, and telegraphic headlines — while case keeps the roles unambiguous.
- Compound NounsA2 — How German glues nouns together into one long word — why the last piece decides the gender and meaning, where the stress falls, and what those linking -s and -n letters are doing.
- Coordinating vs Subordinating Conjunctions and Word OrderB1 — The conjunction you choose dictates the word order: coordinating conjunctions leave V2 untouched, subordinating ones send the verb to the end — and 'denn' vs 'weil' proves it.
- Hyphenation and Word DivisionB2 — How German uses the hyphen (Bindestrich) — the suspended hyphen for shared compound parts, clarity hyphens, hyphens with numbers and letters — and how words break at the end of a line.
- Compounding in Depth (and Linking Elements)B1 — How German welds nouns into single words — the head-final rule that sets gender and plural, the stacking of modifiers, and the linking elements (Fugen) that glue the parts together.