Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht, ist das Wohnzimmer voll.

When our relatives visit us, the living room is full.

Breakdown of Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht, ist das Wohnzimmer voll.

• sein: to be
• unser: our
• das Wohnzimmer: the living room
• besuchen: to visit
• wenn: when
• uns: us
• voll: full
• die Verwandtschaft: the family

Questions & Answers about Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht, ist das Wohnzimmer voll.

Why is besucht at the end of the first part of the sentence?

Because wenn is a subordinating conjunction. In German, a clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction usually sends the finite verb to the end of that clause.

So:

• Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht = When our relatives visit us

The verb of that clause is besucht, so it goes at the end.

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Why is there a comma after besucht?

German normally uses a comma to separate a subordinate clause from the main clause.

So in this sentence:

• Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht, = subordinate clause
• ist das Wohnzimmer voll. = main clause

That comma is required in standard German.

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Why does the second part say ist das Wohnzimmer voll instead of das Wohnzimmer ist voll?

Because German main clauses follow the verb-second rule.

When the sentence starts with the wenn-clause, that whole clause takes up the first position. Then the finite verb of the main clause must come next, in second position.

So the structure is:

1. Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht
2. ist
3. das Wohnzimmer voll

That is why you get:

• Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht, ist das Wohnzimmer voll.

If the sentence started directly with the subject, then you would say:

• Das Wohnzimmer ist voll, wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht.

Both are grammatical.

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What exactly does wenn mean here?

Here wenn means when or whenever.

It is often used for:

• repeated situations: whenever
• general situations: when
• sometimes conditional meaning: if

In this sentence, it suggests a repeated or typical situation:

• Whenever our relatives visit us, the living room is full.

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Why is it unsere Verwandtschaft and not unsere Verwandten?

Both are possible in German, but they are not exactly the same.

• die Verwandtschaft = relatives / extended family / kin as a group, a collective idea
• die Verwandten = the relatives as individual people

So:

• Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht ...
  sounds like when our relatives/family come to visit us as a group

• Wenn unsere Verwandten uns besuchen ...
  focuses more directly on the relatives as multiple individual people

A very important grammar point: Verwandtschaft is a singular noun, even though it refers to multiple people collectively.

That is why the verb is singular:

• unsere Verwandtschaft besucht not
• unsere Verwandtschaft besuchen

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Why is the verb besucht singular if it refers to lots of relatives?

Because Verwandtschaft is grammatically singular.

German verbs agree with the grammatical subject, not necessarily with the real-world number of people involved.

So:

• die Verwandtschaft = singular noun
• therefore: besucht = singular verb form

Compare:

• Unsere Verwandtschaft besucht uns.
• Unsere Verwandten besuchen uns.

The first uses singular agreement, the second plural agreement.

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Why is it uns and not wir?

Because uns is the object form of wir.

• wir = we (subject form)
• uns = us (object form)

The verb besuchen takes a direct object in the accusative case:

• jemanden besuchen = to visit someone

So:

• Unsere Verwandtschaft besucht uns.
  = Our relatives visit us.

You cannot use wir here, because wir would have to be the subject.

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Why does unsere end in -e?

Because unsere is a possessive determiner, and its ending changes depending on the noun it goes with.

Here it modifies:

• Verwandtschaft

And Verwandtschaft is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative (because it is the subject of the subordinate clause)

For a feminine singular nominative noun, the possessive determiner takes -e:

• meine Verwandtschaft
• deine Verwandtschaft
• unsere Verwandtschaft

So unsere is the correct form here.

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Why is it das Wohnzimmer?

Because Wohnzimmer is a neuter noun, so its article is das.

• das Wohnzimmer = the living room

In the main clause, das Wohnzimmer is the subject:

• ist das Wohnzimmer voll

So it appears in the nominative case with its normal article das.

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Why doesn’t voll have an ending?

Because voll is used here as a predicate adjective, not as an adjective directly before a noun.

In German:

• adjectives before a noun usually take endings
• adjectives after sein, werden, bleiben, etc. usually do not

So:

• das volle Wohnzimmer = adjective before noun, with ending
• das Wohnzimmer ist voll = predicate adjective, no ending

That is why the sentence says:

• ist das Wohnzimmer voll

not

• ist das Wohnzimmer volle

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Does voll literally mean full here?

Yes. Here voll means full in the normal sense.

So das Wohnzimmer ist voll means the living room is full, probably with people.

German often uses voll just like English full in this kind of sentence.

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Could this sentence also be written with the main clause first?

Yes.

You can also say:

• Das Wohnzimmer ist voll, wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht.

That is perfectly grammatical.

The version starting with wenn puts more emphasis on the situation when our relatives visit. The version starting with Das Wohnzimmer puts the focus more on the living room being full.

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Could you add dann after the comma?

Yes, you could say:

• Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht, dann ist das Wohnzimmer voll.

That is grammatical and can sound a bit more explicit or emphatic.

But dann is not required. In many normal sentences, German leaves it out:

• Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht, ist das Wohnzimmer voll.

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Why are nouns like Verwandtschaft and Wohnzimmer capitalized?

Because in German, all nouns are capitalized.

So in this sentence:

• Verwandtschaft is a noun
• Wohnzimmer is a noun

That is why they begin with capital letters.

This is one of the most noticeable differences from English.

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Is besuchen the normal verb for to visit people?

Yes. besuchen is the standard verb for visiting a person, place, or event.

Examples:

• Wir besuchen unsere Freunde. = We visit our friends.
• Sie besucht ihre Großeltern. = She visits her grandparents.

So uns besucht is exactly what you would expect for visits us.

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What is the basic word order of the first clause?

The first clause is:

• Wenn unsere Verwandtschaft uns besucht

Its structure is:

• Wenn = subordinating conjunction
• unsere Verwandtschaft = subject
• uns = direct object
• besucht = verb at the end

So the pattern is roughly:

• Wenn + subject + object + verb

That is a very common German subordinate-clause pattern.

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What is the basic word order of the second clause?

The second clause is:

• ist das Wohnzimmer voll

Its structure is:

• ist = finite verb
• das Wohnzimmer = subject
• voll = predicate adjective

This order happens because the sentence began with the wenn-clause, so the main clause must put its finite verb in second position.

If the main clause stood alone, the more basic order would be:

• Das Wohnzimmer ist voll.

So the sentence shows both an important rule and the underlying simpler pattern.