Confusing sentence with elements outside central bracket Hello, I've been reading wikipedia articles in German in order to learn new words. I came across the following sentence in an article:

Adam

Confusing sentence with elements outside central bracket Hello, I've been reading wikipedia articles in German in order to learn new words. I came across the following sentence in an article: "Washington ist geprägt durch den scharfen Kontrast zwischen Berg- und Küstenregion im Westen und den trockenen Gebieten im Osten des Staates." I was confused by the sentence - is the grammar incorrect here? Shouldn't "geprägt" be at the end of the sentence, like this: "Washington ist durch den scharfen Kontrast zwischen Berg- und Küstenregion im Westen und den trockenen Gebieten im Osten des Staates geprägt" I've heard putting sentence elements after the 'central bracket' is colloquial. Is that how this sentence is written? Danke im Voraus! Adam

Jun 27, 2015 5:41 PM

Answers · 6

This is called a "prepositional clause in the Nachfeld (the part after the verb)". It's correct German for long and complex clauses. For short clauses it's colloquial (because the speaker happened to think of something after he already finished the sentence). Sometimes it's used intentionally for emphasis. See: http://www.canoo.net/services/OnlineGrammar/Satz/Wortstellung/Stellungsfeld/Nachfeld.html?lang=en

June 27, 2015