Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

When organizing a massive event like a flash mob, everything might go exactly to plan—except for a few minor surprises! To express restrictive exceptions like "except that" or "only that", use the subordinating conjunction **nur dass**.

Like other clauses starting with **dass**, **nur dass** is a subordinating conjunction. This means it kicks the conjugated verb to the very end of its clause:

{{item:885633}}

{{item:885635}}

### Minor hiccups and exceptions

You can use **nur dass** whenever you want to state that a situation was generally true, with one specific exception. Notice how the conjugated verb consistently lands at the very end of the **nur dass** clause, whether it's a simple verb or part of a past tense structure:

{{item:885638}}

{{item:885643}}

{{item:885650}}

{{item:885656}}

Exception clauses (nur dass)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (der, die, das)

Indefinite articles (ein, eine)

Regular verbs and statement word order (ich -e, er -t)

The second person (du -st, Sie -en)

Yes/No questions

The verb 'to have' (habe, hast, hat)

Plural pronouns and regular verbs (wir, ihr, sie)

Plural 'to be' and 'to have' (sind, haben)

Plural nouns and the plural article (die)

Sentence negation (nicht)

Noun negation (kein, keine)

Question words (wer, was, wo, wie)

Numbers 0 to 12 (null, eins, zwei)

The accusative case (den, die, das)

Indefinite accusative articles (einen, keinen)

Direct object pronouns (mich, dich, ihn)

There is / there are (es gibt)

Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel changes: a to ä (er fährt)

Weather and conditions (es regnet)

First- and second-person possessives in the nominative (mein, dein, Ihr)

First- and second-person possessives in the accusative (meinen, deinen, Ihren)

Third-person and plural possessives (sein, ihr, unser, euer)

Possession with names (Annas Auto)

Demonstrative pronouns (dieser, diese, dieses)

Expressing preference (gern, lieber)

Asking about direction and origin (woher, wohin)

Expressing ability (können)

Polite requests (möchten)

Expressing intention (wollen)

Modal verbs of obligation and permission (müssen, dürfen)

Separable prefix verbs

Adverbs of frequency (immer, oft, manchmal, nie)

The Dative case and definite articles (dem, der, den)

Dative indefinite and negative articles (einem, einer, keinem)

Dative personal pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr...)

Dative verbs (helfen, danken, gefallen, schmecken)

Dative prepositions (aus, bei, mit, nach...)

Accusative prepositions (für, ohne, gegen)

Two-way prepositions for location (in, an, auf...)

Informal singular imperative (mach, komm)

Plural and formal imperative (macht, machen Sie)

Coordinating conjunctions (und, oder, aber, denn)

Simple past of sein and haben (war, hatte)

The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

Past tense: irregular verbs (ge-...-en)

The perfect tense: mixed verbs (gebracht, gekannt)

The perfect tense with sein (ist gegangen)

The perfect tense: separable verbs (eingekauft)

The perfect tense: inseparable and -ieren verbs (besucht, studiert)

Informal singular commands (mach, lern)

Numbers 13 to 20 (dreizehn to zwanzig)

Counting by tens to 100 (dreißig, vierzig)

Telling time (Uhr, halb, Viertel, vor, nach)

Numbers 21 to 99 (einundzwanzig, zweiunddreißig)

Greetings and farewells

Thank you, sorry and good wishes

Everyday replies

Numbers 100 to 1,000,000 (hundert, tausend...)

Becoming and getting (werden)

The impersonal pronoun (man)

Indefinite pronouns (jemand, niemand...)

Time sequence prepositions (vor, nach, bei)

Time span prepositions (von... bis, seit, für)

Adverbs of sequence (zuerst, dann, danach)

Two-way prepositions for direction (in, auf, an...)

Directional adverbs (hin, her)

Placement verbs (setzen, stellen, legen)

Months of the year (Januar, Februar)

The four seasons (Frühling, Sommer)

Time prepositions and indefinite pronouns (an, in, um)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)

Ordinals 20th and beyond (-ste, -sten)

Placement vs. location verbs (stellen vs. stehen)

Accusative reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich)

Accusative reflexive verbs (sich freuen)

Dative reflexive pronouns (mir, dir, sich)

Dative reflexive verbs (sich etwas merken)

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (-te)

Temporal prepositions (an, in, um)

Double objects with nouns

Double objects with pronouns

The modal verb for advice (sollen)

Simple past of modal verbs (musste, wollte...)

Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

Adverbial connectors of consequence (deshalb, darum...)

Subordinate clauses for statements (dass)

Question	Answer
the flash mob	der Flashmob
We planned the flash mob because we wanted to surprise the people.	Wir haben den Flashmob geplant, weil wir die Leute überraschen wollten.
only that / except that (introducing a restriction)	nur dass
The flash mob on the square was great, except that my friend was missing.	Der Flashmob auf dem Platz war toll, nur dass mein Freund fehlte.
synchronously	synchron
The group danced synchronously, except that the music was too quiet.	Die Gruppe tanzte synchron, nur dass die Musik zu leise war.
It is important that everyone jumps synchronously.	Es ist wichtig, dass alle synchron springen.
to stand still	stillstehen
Suddenly everyone had to stand still, except that a child was running.	Plötzlich mussten alle stillstehen, nur dass ein Kind rannte.
I cannot stand still for long, because I am cold.	Ich kann nicht lange stillstehen, weil mir kalt ist.
the execution	die Ausführung
to succeed	gelingen
The execution will certainly succeed.	Die Ausführung wird sicher gelingen.
The execution was almost perfect, except that we forgot the umbrella.	Die Ausführung war fast perfekt, nur dass wir den Schirm vergaßen.
The surprise worked out well for us.	Die Überraschung ist uns gut gelungen.
amazed	verblüfft
The passerby who saw everything was very amazed.	Der Passant, der alles sah, war sehr verblüfft.
We were totally amazed because nobody made any mistakes.	Wir waren total verblüfft, weil niemand Fehler machte.
the confusion	die Verwirrung
In the beginning, there was a little bit of confusion.	Am Anfang gab es ein bisschen Verwirrung.
There was no confusion, except that the train was delayed.	Es gab keine Verwirrung, nur dass der Zug Verspätung hatte.
the cheering	der Jubel
After the song, the cheering was loud.	Nach dem Lied war der Jubel laut.
The cheering on the street was beautiful.	Der Jubel auf der Straße war wunderschön.
to carry along	mitreißen
The music was able to sweep everyone along.	Die Musik konnte alle Leute mitreißen.
The atmosphere swept us along, except that we got tired.	Die Stimmung riss uns mit, nur dass wir müde wurden.