Wenn ich nichts esse, habe ich Hunger.

to eat

Breakdown of Wenn ich nichts esse, habe ich Hunger.

• ich: I
• haben: to have
• der Hunger: the hunger

Questions & Answers about Wenn ich nichts esse, habe ich Hunger.

Why does the conjugated verb appear at the end in the clause Wenn ich nichts esse?

In German, any subordinate clause introduced by a conjunction like wenn, weil or dass must put its finite (conjugated) verb at the very end. So whereas in English you say “If I don’t eat anything…,” in German you must say Wenn ich nichts esse… (literally “When I nothing eat…”).

Why is there a comma after the wenn-clause?

A comma always separates a subordinate clause from the main clause in German. Since Wenn ich nichts esse is a subordinate clause, you write a comma before continuing with the main clause habe ich Hunger.

Why does the main clause read habe ich Hunger instead of ich habe Hunger?

German main clauses follow the “verb-second” (V2) rule: the finite verb must be the second element. Here, the entire Wenn-clause counts as the first element. To keep the verb in second position, the subject ich follows the verb, giving habe ich Hunger.

Why is nichts used here instead of kein?

nichts is an indefinite pronoun meaning “nothing.” kein is a negating article that must modify a specific noun (e.g. kein Brot “no bread”). Since the sentence expresses “nothing at all” rather than “no [specific thing],” you use nichts.