Wichtige Wörter unterstreiche ich im Text, damit ich sie später schneller finde.

I underline important words in the text so that I can find them more quickly later.

Breakdown of Wichtige Wörter unterstreiche ich im Text, damit ich sie später schneller finde.

• in: in
• dem: the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
• ich: I
• finden: to find

Questions & Answers about Wichtige Wörter unterstreiche ich im Text, damit ich sie später schneller finde.

Why does the sentence start with Wichtige Wörter instead of ich?

German often puts the most important or most topical element first. Here, Wichtige Wörter is moved to the front for emphasis.

The more neutral order would be:

Ich unterstreiche wichtige Wörter im Text, damit ich sie später schneller finde.

Starting with Wichtige Wörter makes those words stand out more.

Why is unterstreiche placed before ich?

Because German main clauses follow the verb-second rule. The conjugated verb must be in the second position.

So if Wichtige Wörter takes the first position, the verb unterstreiche must come next, and the subject ich comes after it:

Wichtige Wörter | unterstreiche | ich ...

This is very common in German word order.

Why is there no article before Wichtige Wörter?

German can use a noun without an article when speaking in a general or indefinite way, especially in the plural.

So wichtige Wörter means important words in a general sense, not the important words.

Compare:

• wichtige Wörter = important words
• die wichtigen Wörter = the important words

Here the speaker means important words in general, so no article is needed.

Why does wichtige end in -e?