Breakdown of Mein Schwager hat vorgeschlagen, dass wir im März eine Videokonferenz machen, falls jemand krank wird.
Questions & Answers about Mein Schwager hat vorgeschlagen, dass wir im März eine Videokonferenz machen, falls jemand krank wird.
Hat vorgeschlagen is the Perfekt form, which is very common in spoken and everyday German.
- hat = auxiliary verb
- vorgeschlagen = past participle of vorschlagen (to suggest)
So:
- Mein Schwager hat vorgeschlagen = My brother-in-law suggested / has suggested
You could also say:
- Mein Schwager schlug vor
That is Präteritum (simple past). It is grammatical, but in everyday speech Germans usually prefer Perfekt for most verbs.
In a German main clause, the finite verb usually comes in second position, and other verb parts go later.
Here the finite verb is:
- hat
And the past participle is:
- vorgeschlagen
So the structure is:
- Mein Schwager | hat | vorgeschlagen
This is normal for the perfect tense in German:
- subject
- auxiliary in second position
- participle later in the clause
After that, the sentence continues with a subordinate clause introduced by dass.
Because dass introduces a subordinate clause, and in German subordinate clauses are normally separated by a comma.
So:
- Mein Schwager hat vorgeschlagen, dass wir ... machen
The comma is required.
This is one of the big differences from English: German comma rules are stricter with subordinate clauses.
In a dass-clause, the conjugated verb goes to the end of the clause.
So:
- main clause: Wir machen eine Videokonferenz.
- subordinate clause: dass wir eine Videokonferenz machen
That is why you get:
- dass wir im März eine Videokonferenz machen
This is one of the most important German word-order rules:
- main clause: verb in second position
- subordinate clause: verb at the end
For the same reason: falls also introduces a subordinate clause, so the verb goes to the end.
- main clause: Jemand wird krank.
- subordinate clause: falls jemand krank wird
So both dass and falls cause end-position for the finite verb.
Both can often mean if, but falls is a bit more like:
- in case
- if it should happen that
So:
- falls jemand krank wird = if someone gets sick / in case someone gets sick
It can sound a little more specific or conditional than wenn.
In many everyday contexts, wenn would also be possible:
- ..., wenn jemand krank wird.
But falls fits very naturally here because the video conference is being suggested as a precaution.
Krank werden means to become sick / to get sick.
Krank sein means to be sick.
So there is a small difference:
- falls jemand krank wird = if someone gets sick
- falls jemand krank ist = if someone is sick
In this sentence, wird suggests the illness might happen in the future, which matches the idea of planning ahead.
Also notice that German often uses the present tense to talk about the future when the context already makes the time clear.
Im is a contraction of:
- in dem → im
With months, German commonly says:
- im März
- im April
- im Januar
This means in March.
So:
- im März eine Videokonferenz machen = have a video conference in March
German often uses an article with nouns in places where English may or may not.
Here:
- eine Videokonferenz machen = to have / do a video conference
The noun Videokonferenz is feminine, so in the accusative singular it is:
- eine Videokonferenz
This is the direct object of machen.
German commonly says things like:
- ein Foto machen
- eine Reise machen
- eine Pause machen
- eine Videokonferenz machen
So this pattern is very normal.
The most important ones are:
Mein Schwager = nominative
It is the subject of the main clause.wir = nominative
It is the subject of the dass-clause.eine Videokonferenz = accusative
It is the direct object of machen.jemand = nominative
It is the subject of wird in the falls-clause.
So the sentence is mostly built with nominative subjects and one accusative object.
Because the sentence gives a full clause with its own subject:
- dass wir ... machen
That clause has:
- subject: wir
- time phrase: im März
- object: eine Videokonferenz
- verb: machen
A zu-infinitive is more natural when the subject is the same as in the main clause.
Compare:
- Mein Schwager hat vorgeschlagen, dass wir im März eine Videokonferenz machen.
- Mein Schwager hat vorgeschlagen, im März eine Videokonferenz zu machen.
The second version is possible, but it can sound slightly less explicit because the subject of machen is understood rather than stated. The dass-clause is very clear because it says exactly who should do it: wir.
Yes, vorschlagen is a separable verb.
In the present tense main clause, it separates:
- Er schlägt vor.
But in some forms, it stays together, especially in the infinitive and the past participle:
- infinitive: vorschlagen
- past participle: vorgeschlagen
So here:
- hat vorgeschlagen
That is normal for separable verbs in the perfect tense.
Yes, German word order is somewhat flexible here.
The sentence is:
- Mein Schwager hat vorgeschlagen, dass wir im März eine Videokonferenz machen, falls jemand krank wird.
This means the falls-clause modifies the idea of having the video conference.
You could also move things around, for example:
- Mein Schwager hat vorgeschlagen, falls jemand krank wird, dass wir im März eine Videokonferenz machen.
That is grammatical, but the original version sounds more natural and easier to process.
So the original order is a good standard model:
- main clause
- dass-clause
- falls-clause
Because German often uses the present tense for future meaning when the context already makes the time clear.
In this sentence, the future idea is already obvious because of:
- im März
- the conditional situation falls jemand krank wird
So German does not need a separate future form.
That is why:
- dass wir im März eine Videokonferenz machen
- falls jemand krank wird
both sound completely normal.
Using werden to form the future is possible in German, but it is often unnecessary and can sound heavier than the simple present.