Cohesion: Linking Sentences into Discourse | German Grammar

A grammatical sentence is not yet a text. To turn a string of sentences into connected discourse, German uses cohesive devices: connector adverbs that signal how one statement relates to the next, pronouns and da-compounds that point back to what was already said, and ellipsis that trims the redundant. The single device that trips up English speakers most is the conjunctional adverb — words like deshalb, trotzdem, außerdem — because they look like English "so" or "however" but behave very differently: they count as a clause element and force verb-inversion. This page sorts out the connector types and the word-order consequences of each.

Three classes of connector, three behaviours

German connectors fall into three structurally distinct classes. Confusing them is the root of most cohesion errors, because each does a different thing to word order.

Class	Examples	Position	Effect on verb
Coordinating conjunctions	und, aber, oder, denn, sondern	outside the clause, position "zero"	no effect — subject-verb order unchanged
Conjunctional adverbs	deshalb, deswegen, trotzdem, dennoch, außerdem, jedoch, dann, danach	inside the clause, fill the Vorfeld	inversion — verb follows the adverb, subject comes after
Subordinating conjunctions	weil, obwohl, dass, wenn	open a subordinate clause	verb goes to the end

Keep these three columns straight and German cohesion stops feeling arbitrary. The rest of the page works through each.

Conjunctional adverbs fill the Vorfeld and force inversion

A conjunctional adverb is, grammatically, an adverb. When it opens a sentence it occupies the Vorfeld (the single slot before the finite verb in a V2 clause), which means the verb must come in second position — directly after the adverb — and the subject drops to third place. This is ordinary V2 inversion; the only surprise is that English speakers don't expect a connector to count as a clause element.

Es regnete, deshalb blieben wir zu Hause.

It was raining, so we stayed home. ('deshalb' fills the Vorfeld → verb 'blieben' second, subject 'wir' third)

Er hatte kaum gelernt. Trotzdem bestand er die Prüfung.

He had hardly studied. Nevertheless he passed the exam. ('Trotzdem' Vorfeld → 'bestand er', inverted)

Das Hotel war teuer. Außerdem war das Zimmer winzig.

The hotel was expensive. On top of that the room was tiny. ('Außerdem' → verb 'war' second, subject after)

Wir verpassten den Zug. Deswegen kamen wir zu spät.

We missed the train. That's why we arrived late. ('Deswegen' forces inversion: 'kamen wir')

In every case the running rule is: connector adverb in the Vorfeld → finite verb in slot two → subject in slot three. The verb literally cannot stay behind the subject, because the Vorfeld is already taken by the adverb.

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The insight competitors skip: conjunctional adverbs (deshalb, trotzdem, außerdem) FILL the Vorfeld and therefore FORCE inversion — the verb comes right after them. Coordinating conjunctions (und, aber, denn) sit OUTSIDE the clause in "position zero" and leave the normal subject-verb order untouched. English's flat connectors ("so", "however", "and", "but") hide this class distinction entirely, which is why learners apply English order and produce 'deshalb wir blieben'.

Contrast with coordinating conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions (und, aber, oder, denn, sondern) sit in position zero, before and outside the clause proper. They are not a clause element, so they leave the Vorfeld free for the subject — and ordinary subject-first order survives.

Es regnete, und wir blieben zu Hause.

It was raining, and we stayed home. ('und' outside the clause → subject 'wir' stays first, then verb)

Ich wollte kommen, aber ich hatte keine Zeit.

I wanted to come, but I didn't have time. ('aber' position zero → 'ich hatte' in normal order)

Now compare the minimal pair directly. deshalb (adverb) inverts; denn (coordinating, also meaning roughly "because/for") does not:

Wir blieben zu Hause, denn es regnete.

We stayed home, for it was raining. ('denn' position zero → 'es regnete', no inversion)

The two sentences Deshalb blieben wir and denn es regnete express related ideas, but the connector class dictates opposite word order. This is the crux English speakers must internalize.

Subordinators send the verb to the end

For completeness: a subordinating conjunction (weil, obwohl, da, dass) does neither of the above — it opens a dependent clause and pushes the finite verb to the very end. It is the third behaviour, distinct again.

Wir blieben zu Hause, weil es regnete.

We stayed home because it was raining. ('weil' → verb 'regnete' at the end)

So the same causal idea has three grammatical encodings: deshalb (adverb, inversion), denn (coordinator, no inversion), weil (subordinator, verb-final). Choosing among them is partly stylistic, partly about emphasis — but each commits you to its word order.

Pronominal reference and da-compounds

Cohesion is not only connectors. The other half is reference — pointing back to something already mentioned so you don't repeat it. German uses personal pronouns (er, sie, es), demonstratives (der, die, das, dieser), and crucially the da-compounds (dafür, damit, darüber, davon) to refer back to a whole idea or to a thing as the object of a preposition.

Sie hat den Vertrag gelesen. Danach unterschrieb sie ihn.

She read the contract. Afterwards she signed it. ('Danach' links the events; 'ihn' refers back to 'den Vertrag')

Er bot mir eine Stelle an. Ich habe lange darüber nachgedacht.

He offered me a job. I thought about it for a long time. ('darüber' = 'über die Stelle' — a da-compound refers back to a thing after a preposition)

Das Projekt ist gescheitert. Damit hatte niemand gerechnet.

The project failed. Nobody had reckoned with that. ('Damit' refers back to the whole previous statement and fronts into the Vorfeld → inversion 'hatte niemand')

Notice that a da-compound in the Vorfeld behaves exactly like a conjunctional adverb: it fills the front slot, so the verb inverts (Damit hatte niemand). The same V2 logic applies to anything that occupies the Vorfeld.

Ellipsis: leaving out the recoverable

Connected discourse also leaves out what the listener can recover from context. In coordinated clauses, a shared subject or verb can be gapped, which itself signals that the clauses belong together.

Er kam herein, [er] setzte sich und [er] sagte nichts.

He came in, sat down and said nothing. (the repeated subject 'er' is gapped after the first clause)

This trimming is a cohesion device: the omission tells the reader the clauses share a subject and form one connected stretch.

Why German marks cohesion through word order

The reason conjunctional adverbs invert and coordinating conjunctions don't comes straight from the V2 constraint. German declarative main clauses require the finite verb in exactly second position, counting constituents. A coordinating conjunction is glued onto the outside of the clause and doesn't count, so the first real constituent — the subject — still occupies the Vorfeld and the verb stays second after it. A conjunctional adverb, by contrast, is a constituent and does count: it takes the Vorfeld, so the verb sits second after the adverb and the subject is pushed to third. English never developed a V2 rule, so all its connectors look and behave alike, leaving the German distinction invisible to the English ear. The remedy is to memorize the class of each connector, because its class is its word order.

Common Mistakes

Failing to invert after a conjunctional adverb — applying English "so we stayed" order.

❌ Es regnete, deshalb wir blieben zu Hause.

Incorrect — 'deshalb' fills the Vorfeld and forces inversion: 'deshalb blieben wir.'

✅ Es regnete, deshalb blieben wir zu Hause.

It was raining, so we stayed home.

Inverting after a coordinating conjunction — wrongly treating aber or und like an adverb.

❌ Ich wollte kommen, aber hatte ich keine Zeit.

Incorrect — 'aber' is position-zero; keep normal order: 'aber ich hatte keine Zeit.'

✅ Ich wollte kommen, aber ich hatte keine Zeit.

I wanted to come, but I didn't have time.

Confusing a conjunctional adverb with a subordinator and sending the verb to the end.

❌ Es regnete, trotzdem wir nach Hause gingen.

Incorrect — 'trotzdem' is an adverb (inversion), not a subordinator: 'trotzdem gingen wir nach Hause.'

✅ Es regnete, trotzdem gingen wir nach Hause.

It was raining; nevertheless we went home.

Repeating a full noun phrase where a pronoun or da-compound would create cohesion.

❌ Er bot mir eine Stelle an. Ich habe über die Stelle nachgedacht.

Clumsy — once introduced, refer back with a da-compound: 'Ich habe darüber nachgedacht.'

✅ Er bot mir eine Stelle an. Ich habe darüber nachgedacht.

He offered me a job. I thought about it.

Putting the conjunctional adverb after the subject but then keeping the verb third — half-applying inversion.

❌ Wir deshalb blieben zu Hause.

Incorrect — either front 'deshalb' (then invert) or place it mid-field; you cannot have it precede the subject without inversion.

✅ Deshalb blieben wir zu Hause.

That's why we stayed home.

Key Takeaways

Conjunctional adverbs (deshalb, deswegen, trotzdem, dennoch, außerdem, jedoch) fill the Vorfeld and force inversion: verb second, subject third.
Coordinating conjunctions (und, aber, oder, denn, sondern) sit outside the clause and leave normal subject-verb order intact.
Subordinators (weil, obwohl, dass) send the verb to the end — a third, distinct behaviour.
Anything in the Vorfeld triggers inversion, including a fronted da-compound (Damit hatte niemand gerechnet).
Cohesion also rests on pronominal reference, da-compounds, and ellipsis of recoverable material.

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