Breakdown of Schließlich wird deklariert, damit alles richtig ist.
sein
to be
richtig
right
alles
everything
schließlich
finally
damit
so that
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
deklarieren
to declare
Questions & Answers about Schließlich wird deklariert, damit alles richtig ist.
Where is the subject in Schließlich wird deklariert?
This is an impersonal passive sentence, which is the focus of this lesson. When an action happens but the focus is just on the activity itself, German often drops the subject. You could start with a dummy subject and say Es wird schließlich deklariert, but because the adverb Schließlich is already in the first position, the es disappears completely!
Why use the impersonal passive here instead of just saying people declare with man?
You could absolutely say Schließlich deklariert man, which is grammatically correct. However, German frequently uses the impersonal passive to sound more formal, objective, or focused entirely on the process. It translates well to the English phrasing declarations are made.
Could we use um ... zu (in order to) here instead of damit (so that)?
No, we cannot. You can only use um ... zu when the subject doing the action is the exact same in both halves of the sentence. Since the first half is an impersonal action without a real subject and the second half has the subject alles (everything), we have to use damit to connect them.
Why does the verb ist go at the very end of the sentence?
The word damit (so that) is a subordinating conjunction. This means it introduces a dependent clause, which automatically pushes its conjugated verb (ist) to the very end of that clause.
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