Breakdown of Wenn er mehr Zeit hätte, käme er öfter.
oft
often
kommen
to come
haben
to have
die Zeit
the time
Questions & Answers about Wenn er mehr Zeit hätte, käme er öfter.
Why does the main clause start with the verb käme instead of the subject er?
Because the entire Wenn clause occupies the first position in the overall sentence structure. In German, the conjugated verb of the main clause must sit in position two, so käme comes immediately after the comma, pushing the subject er to the third position.
Why use käme instead of würde kommen here?
Both are grammatically correct and mean the same thing. However, for a handful of common strong verbs like kommen (which becomes käme), gehen (ginge), and finden (fände), the one-word Konjunktiv II (Subjunctive II) form is widely used in written German and formal speech. It sounds slightly more elegant than the würde + infinitive workaround.
Is hätte following the same grammar rule as käme?
Yes, hätte is the Konjunktiv II form of haben. While most verbs default to the würde construction in everyday speech, the auxiliary verbs haben and sein (wäre), as well as the modal verbs, almost exclusively use their one-word forms. Notice that it translates to the simple past 'had' in the English phrase 'if he had', but it is functionally a subjunctive form in German.
Can this conditional sentence be built without using the word Wenn?