Er raucht draußen.

outside

Breakdown of Er raucht draußen.

• er: he
• rauchen: to smoke

Questions & Answers about Er raucht draußen.

Why is raucht changed from rauchen?

Rauchen is the infinitive, meaning the basic dictionary form to smoke.
In a normal sentence, German usually uses a conjugated form instead.

For er (he), the verb changes like this:

• ich rauche
• du rauchst
• er/sie/es raucht
• wir rauchen
• ihr raucht
• sie/Sie rauchen

So Er raucht draußen. uses the correct third-person singular form: raucht.

Why is the verb in the second position?

In a standard German main clause, the conjugated verb usually comes in position 2.

So the structure here is:

• Er = position 1
• raucht = position 2
• draußen = the rest of the sentence

This is one of the most important German word order rules.

Could I also say Draußen raucht er?