A direct question stands on its own: Kommt er? ("Is he coming?"). An indirect question is tucked inside a larger sentence: "I don't know whether he's coming." German marks this embedding the way it marks all subordinate clauses — with verb-final word order and no question mark. Yes/no questions are introduced by ob ("whether"); wh-questions keep their question word (wer, was, wann, wo, warum ...) as the subordinator. The big trap for English speakers is that English "if" splits into two German words, and using the wrong one changes the meaning.
Indirect yes/no questions: ob
When you embed a yes/no question, English uses "whether" or "if," and German uses ob. ob is a subordinating conjunction, so it counts as the first element of its clause and sends the finite verb to the end. There is no question mark on the embedded clause — the punctuation belongs to the main sentence.
Ich weiß nicht, ob er kommt.
I don't know whether he's coming. ('ob' sends 'kommt' to the end; no question mark inside)
Sie fragt, ob du Zeit hast.
She's asking whether you have time. (verb-final 'hast')
Kannst du nachsehen, ob die Post schon da ist?
Can you check whether the mail has arrived yet? (the '?' belongs to the whole sentence, not the embedded clause; verb-final 'ist')
Compare the direct version with the embedded one to see the transformation:
Kommt er morgen?
Is he coming tomorrow? (direct question — verb first, question mark)
Ich frage mich, ob er morgen kommt.
I wonder whether he's coming tomorrow. (embedded — 'ob' added, verb to the end, no internal question mark)
The direct question has the verb first (V1) and a question mark. Embedding it adds ob, moves the verb to the end, and strips the internal question mark. That three-part shift — add the subordinator, send the verb back, drop the question mark — is the whole operation.
Indirect wh-questions: keep the question word
For questions built on a question word — wer (who), was (what), wann (when), wo (where), wie (how), warum/wieso (why), welche (which) — you do not add ob. The question word itself acts as the subordinator. The verb still goes to the end, and there is still no internal question mark.
Ich weiß nicht, wann er kommt.
I don't know when he's coming. ('wann' is the subordinator; verb-final 'kommt')
Sie hat mich gefragt, wo ich wohne.
She asked me where I live. (verb-final 'wohne')
Mir ist nicht klar, warum das passiert ist.
It's not clear to me why that happened. (verb-final 'passiert ist')
Again, watch the shift from direct to embedded. The direct wh-question is verb-second (the w-word in front, verb in second position); embedding pushes the verb all the way to the end:
Wann kommt er?
When is he coming? (direct — w-word first, verb second)
Weißt du, wann er kommt?
Do you know when he's coming? (embedded — verb moves to the very end: 'kommt')
In the direct question kommt is in second position. Embedded under Weißt du, the same verb drops to the end: wann er kommt. Keeping the direct word order (Weißt du, wann kommt er?) is the classic learner mistake.
ob (whether) vs wenn (if): the meaning-changing trap
English "if" does two completely different jobs. It can mean "whether" (introducing an indirect question) or it can introduce a condition ("if it rains"). German splits these into two separate words, and they are not interchangeable:
- ob = "whether" → indirect yes/no question.
- wenn = "if" (condition) / "when(ever)" → conditional or temporal clause.
| ob | wenn | |
|---|---|---|
| English | whether (sometimes "if") | if (condition), when(ever) |
| Function | Embeds a yes/no question | States a condition or repeated time |
| Test | Can you replace it with "whether"? | Does it name a condition? |
| Verb order | End | End |
The reliable test: if you can substitute "whether" in English, use ob. "I don't know if/whether he's coming" → whether fits → ob. "If it rains, we'll stay home" → whether does not fit → wenn.
Ich weiß nicht, ob er kommt.
I don't know whether he's coming. ('whether' fits → ob; this is an embedded question)
Wenn er kommt, freue ich mich.
If/when he comes, I'll be glad. ('whether' does NOT fit → wenn; this is a condition)
Getting this wrong does not just sound odd — it changes the meaning. Ich weiß nicht, *wenn er kommt would be read as "I don't know *when(ever) he comes," not "I don't know whether he comes." This is one of the most frequent and most consequential errors English speakers make in German.
When ob and dass differ
It is worth contrasting ob with dass ("that"). Both embed clauses with verb-final order, but they embed different things. dass embeds a statement (something asserted as true or factual); ob embeds a yes/no question (something open, undecided).
Ich weiß, dass er kommt.
I know that he's coming. (a statement — it's settled; use 'dass')
Ich weiß nicht, ob er kommt.
I don't know whether he's coming. (an open question — undecided; use 'ob')
The choice tracks certainty: dass for the known/asserted, ob for the unknown/questioned. Verbs of knowing and saying (wissen, sagen, glauben) take dass for facts and ob when the embedded content is itself a yes/no question.
ob in other roles
ob also appears in a couple of fixed patterns worth recognizing. als ob means "as if" (introducing an unreal comparison, often with Konjunktiv II), and ob ... oder lists alternatives ("whether ... or").
Er tut so, als ob er nichts gehört hätte.
He acts as if he hadn't heard anything. (formal/literary 'als ob' + Konjunktiv II; verb-final)
Ob es regnet oder schneit, wir gehen wandern.
Whether it rains or snows, we're going hiking. ('ob ... oder' lists alternatives)
Common Mistakes
Using wenn for 'whether' in an indirect question — the most damaging error.
❌ Ich weiß nicht, wenn er kommt.
Incorrect for 'whether' — this reads as 'when(ever)'. Use 'ob': 'Ich weiß nicht, ob er kommt.'
✅ Ich weiß nicht, ob er kommt.
I don't know whether he's coming.
Keeping direct-question word order in an embedded wh-question.
❌ Weißt du, wann kommt er?
Incorrect — embedded questions are verb-final: 'wann er kommt.'
✅ Weißt du, wann er kommt?
Do you know when he's coming?
Keeping verb-first order after ob.
❌ Sie fragt, ob hast du Zeit.
Incorrect — 'ob' is subordinating; the verb goes to the end: 'ob du Zeit hast.'
✅ Sie fragt, ob du Zeit hast.
She's asking whether you have time.
Putting a question mark inside the embedded clause when the whole sentence is a statement.
❌ Ich frage mich, ob er kommt?
Incorrect — the main sentence is a statement, so it ends with a period, not a question mark.
✅ Ich frage mich, ob er kommt.
I wonder whether he's coming.
Key Takeaways
- ob = "whether" introduces indirect yes/no questions; the verb goes to the end and there is no internal question mark.
- Wh-questions keep their question word (wer, was, wann, wo, warum ...) as the subordinator — also verb-final.
- English "if" splits in two: ob (= whether, embedded question) vs wenn (= conditional "if" / "when"). The test: if "whether" fits, use ob.
- Choosing wenn where ob is needed changes the meaning to "when(ever)" — a real, frequent error.
- dass embeds settled statements; ob embeds open yes/no questions — the choice tracks certainty.
Now practice German
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- dass-Clauses and Complement ClausesB1 — A dass-clause is a subordinate clause that serves as the object of a verb of saying, thinking, or feeling — verb-final, comma before dass — alongside the ob-clause for indirect yes/no questions and the dass-less V2 variant of casual speech.
- wenn vs ob (if/whether)B1 — How to choose between wenn (conditional/temporal 'if/when') and ob (whether/if in indirect yes-no questions), with the simple whether-test that separates them.
- Reporting Questions and CommandsC1 — How German reports non-statements — yes/no questions as ob-clauses, w-questions keeping their question word, and commands rebuilt with the modal sollen, since German has no reported imperative.
- Verb-Final Order in Subordinate ClausesB1 — Why a subordinating conjunction sends the finite verb to the very end of the clause — and why in compound tenses the auxiliary lands dead last.
- Concessive and Conditional ConjunctionsB1 — How German says 'although' and 'if' — obwohl sends the verb to the end, trotzdem inverts it, and German can drop wenn entirely by putting the verb first.
- Subordinate Clause and Comma ErrorsB1 — Two rules English directly contradicts: German always sends the subordinate verb to the end with a comma in front, and German never drops the relative pronoun — plus the dass/das, weil/denn, and relative-case traps.