Learn Hardcore German: Daraufhin ändere ich meine Strategie, folglich werde ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter sein. - As a result I change my strategy; consequently I will be more relaxed next time.

Daraufhin is a sentence adverb that means roughly “as a result of that / in reaction to that.” It refers back to a previous event or situation.

In German main clauses, the finite verb must be in second position (the “V2 rule”). If you start the sentence with Daraufhin, that whole adverbial counts as position 1, so the verb comes next:

Daraufhin (1) ändere (2) ich meine Strategie …

If you didn’t put Daraufhin at the beginning, you could say:

Ich ändere daraufhin meine Strategie …

Here Ich is position 1, ändere is position 2, and daraufhin moves later into the sentence. The meaning is almost the same; starting with Daraufhin just emphasizes the consequence more strongly.

What is the difference between daraufhin, danach, and deshalb?

All three connect your sentence to something that came before, but they have different nuances:

daraufhin – “as a result of that / in response to that”
- Focus on a reaction to a specific previous action or event.
- Often implies: X happened → because of that, I did Y.
- Example: Someone criticizes you → Daraufhin änderst du deine Strategie.
danach – “after that / afterwards”
- Mainly temporal (time sequence), not explicitly causal.
- X happens, then later Y happens, but not necessarily because of X.
deshalb / daher / darum – “therefore / that’s why”
- Clearly causal connectors (X → therefore Y).
- Often more neutral and more common in spoken language than daraufhin in this kind of sentence.

So you could also say:

Deshalb ändere ich meine Strategie – “Therefore / That’s why I change my strategy.”
Danach ändere ich meine Strategie – just “After that I change my strategy,” without clearly saying it’s a reaction.

Why is there a comma before folglich?

Because the sentence contains two independent main clauses:

Daraufhin ändere ich meine Strategie,
folglich werde ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter sein.

In German, two main clauses joined like this must be separated by a comma.

Folglich here acts as a coordinating connector (similar to English “thus/therefore”), but the verb still keeps the normal V2 position in the second clause:

folglich (position 1) werde (position 2) ich …

You could also put a period and start a new sentence:

Daraufhin ändere ich meine Strategie. Folglich werde ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter sein.

Both versions are correct; the comma version makes the connection a bit tighter.

Is folglich a conjunction or an adverb, and how does it affect word order?

In modern descriptions, folglich is often treated as a conjunctive adverb (Satzadverb), but functionally it behaves like certain coordinating connectors:

It links two main clauses.
It does not send the verb to the end like subordinating conjunctions do (weil, dass, obwohl, etc.).
Instead, in the clause it introduces, the finite verb is still in second position.

Pattern:

Folglich (1) werde (2) ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter sein.

Compare:

Weil ich meine Strategie ändere, werde ich …
Here weil is subordinating → verb at the end in the weil clause: ändere.

Could I replace folglich with deshalb, daher, or also? Are there register differences?

Yes, you can, with slightly different style:

Deshalb werde ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter sein.
Daher werde ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter sein.
Also werde ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter sein.

Nuances:

folglich – somewhat formal / written, logical tone (“consequently”).
deshalb – very common, neutral, works in both spoken and written language.
daher – slightly more bookish than deshalb, often written.
also – very common in spoken German as “so / thus / then”; in writing it can sound more informal and is also heavily used as a filler word in speech.

Grammatically, they all behave the same way in this position: they take position 1 in the clause, and the verb is in position 2.

Why is ändere in the present tense, not past tense or future tense?

German Präsens (present tense) is quite flexible. It can express:

a current action,
a general truth,
or even a planned / near future action, if the time is clear from context.

In this sentence, the speaker is describing a decision or a typical reaction in a general or narrative present:

Daraufhin ändere ich meine Strategie …
“As a result (in such situations), I change my strategy …”

If the speaker were telling a specific past story, they might say:

Daraufhin änderte ich meine Strategie … (Präteritum)
or in spoken German: Daraufhin habe ich meine Strategie geändert. (Perfekt)

Using future tense here (werde ändern) would usually be unnecessary and sound odd unless you specifically want to emphasize a future plan:

Daraufhin werde ich meine Strategie ändern … – “As a result (of what we’re discussing now), I will change my strategy …”

Why do we use werde … sein instead of a simple present for the future?

In German, the future tense (Futur I) is formed with werden + infinitive:

werde sein – “will be”

You could say:

folglich bin ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter.

This is grammatically correct. German often uses the present tense with a time expression (beim nächsten Mal) for future events.

However, werde ich … sein here:

sounds a bit more like a prediction or resolution about the future,
adds a slight emphasis that this is a future outcome of your changed strategy.

So:

bin ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter – more neutral, often fine.
werde ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter sein – a bit more explicit and emphatic about the future.

What exactly does beim nächsten Mal mean, and what is going on grammatically with beim and nächsten?

Beim nächsten Mal means “(at) the next time” / “next time (this happens)”.

Breakdown:

bei – preposition meaning roughly “at / with / during”, requires dative.
bei dem → beim – contraction: bei + dem = beim.
Mal – neuter noun, das Mal (“time/occurrence”).
Dative singular of das Mal: dem Mal.
nächsten – adjective nächst- (“next”) with dative singular -en ending, because:
- case: dative,
- gender/number: singular neuter (Mal),
- article type: definite article (dem → beim).

So, structurally: bei dem nächsten Mal → beim nächsten Mal.

Literal idea: “at the next occasion / at the next time (this situation occurs)”.

Why is entspannter in the comparative form, and why doesn’t it have an ending?

Entspannt = “relaxed”.
Entspannter = “more relaxed”.

Comparative meaning:
- The speaker is comparing their future state to their usual or past state:
  - “I will be more relaxed next time (than I was before).”
- That’s why entspannter (comparative) is used instead of entspannt (positive).
No ending after sein:
- Here entspannter is a predicative adjective after the verb sein (to be).
- Predicative adjectives in German do not take endings:
  - Ich bin müde.
  - Er ist freundlich.
  - Sie wird nervös.
  - Ich werde entspannter sein.

Adjective endings (-e, -en, -em, -er, -es) appear in attributive position before a noun (e.g. ein entspannter Mensch, die entspanntere Atmosphäre), but not in predicative position.

Why is it meine Strategie ändern and not something like mich ändern or wechseln?

German distinguishes between:

etwas ändern – “to change something”
- You modify or adjust an object, plan, approach, etc.
- Ich ändere meine Strategie. – “I change my strategy.”
sich ändern – “to change (oneself) / to change (by itself)”
- The subject itself changes.
- Ich habe mich geändert. – “I have changed (as a person).”
- Die Situation hat sich geändert. – “The situation has changed.”
wechseln – “to switch / to change (in the sense of exchanging one thing for another)”
- Often used with more concrete things:
  - den Job wechseln – to change jobs
  - die Kleidung wechseln – to change clothes
  - das Thema wechseln – to change the topic
- die Strategie wechseln is possible, but the common phrase is die Strategie ändern, especially when you mean adjust / modify your existing strategy rather than completely swapping it out.

In this sentence, meine Strategie ändern is the most idiomatic way to express “I adjust / change my strategy.”

Is this sentence more typical of spoken or written German? Could I say this in everyday conversation?

The sentence is perfectly correct, but some elements (daraufhin, folglich) sound a bit formal / written.

In everyday spoken German, people might phrase it more simply, for example:

Dann ändere ich meine Strategie, und deshalb bin ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter.
Dann ändere ich meine Strategie, also bin ich beim nächsten Mal entspannter.

Key differences:

daraufhin → dann, danach (simpler, more common in speech)
folglich → deshalb, also, darum (more conversational)

So yes, you can say the original sentence, but it will sound more like careful / formal speech or writing than casual conversation.