​​1) ​​​​​​​Difficulty and Level: 

In my experience, even students who finished a German B2 or even C1 level at a language school are mostly not able to reproduce these complex sentences in an everyday conversation. While using these sentences in a natural conversation gets closer to a more advanced C1 level, the ability to understand and to read these sentences is key for an B1 and B2 level. ​​

​​​​​2) Why is this important: 
Not being able to use conjunctions is one of the most important limitations most students are facing. While in English you can short cut many conjugations, in German these conjunctions are part of most sentences.

Therefore, dependent clause sentence structure is the most common form of most sentences. The actual main clause can became the smallest part of the whole sentence. In other words, the dependent clause sentence structure is not the exception but rather the regular form of most sentences in an everyday conversation. 

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Dependent Clause B1.1

At the end of the A2 level we accomplished all the conjunctions you need in an everyday conversation. For example: "Wenn ich nach Hause komme, gehe ich ins Bett." In B1 you will learn how to use these conjunctions with more complex phrases: "Ich habe nicht vor, morgen ins Büro zu kommen."  To master these sentences, first you need to get very familiar with the most important conjunctions (wenn, als, weil, ob, damit, um...zu, dass etc). ​

​B1|B2 EXERCISES

This is a short overview of some topics we will cover in our B1|B2 lessons.​ The examples illustrate how the lessons are structured. You can check how the pdf- and audio exercises are organized. These full bilingual textbook exercises are available for each of lessons.

On the left you find some examples for these conjunctions we have been practicing at the end of A2. Here you have to switch between different conjunctions very fast. Make sure you are able to understand and reproduce these sentences before moving to the next level. There are certain verbs followed by certain conjunctions. Below you also find the link to download the audio to check your answers. The solution sheet is not included here (see below). 

​​​​Combined Dependent Clause B1|B2 

The next level is practicing sentences with more than one conjunction. The sentences of this exercises include at least two conjunctions. This is a very common sentence structure for every day German. For example: "Wen ich nach Hause gehe, versuche ich, früh ins Bett zu gehen. If you are able to easily reproduce these sentences you can consider yourself having at least a B2 level already: ​​

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3) Rhythm & Music​

In order to master these German sentences, you do not only need to know which conjunctions are linked to which verbs.  But you also need to internalize the rhythm of these sentence structures. Jumping form one clause to the next clause has to become the natural routine. It gets easier if you think of it as it were music. Try out this exercises. Use the audio file to check your answers.

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​PRIVATE GERMAN

TUTOR in BERLIN​

LEARN GERMAN with YOUR PRIVATE TEACHER | INDIVIDUAL GERMAN LESSONS | STUDY GERMAN in BERLIN or ONLINE

​​​The pdf doesn't include the solution. But you can take the audio to check your answers.