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?

Yes. That is also correct.

German lets you move another element into the first position for emphasis or style, but the conjugated verb still stays in position 2:

• Er raucht draußen.
• Draußen raucht er.

Both are grammatical. The second version gives a little more focus to draußen.

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