Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day.
And after the load of prefix verbs last week, today, we’ll do something a tiny bit more analytical.
Because today, we’ll talk a little about
The difference between weil and denn
Now, the OG readers among you might be like “Wait, I feel like you talked about that already.”
And indeed I did. I had a segment about it in the article that was dedicated to denn.
But that was a bit rushed and the article as a whole was kind of all over the place, so I decided to focus that one on the various uses of denn itself and make weil vs denn into its own thing.
Because this topic actually gives us a quite interesting look at the scope of words and the hierarchy of clauses.
Yeah… I wouldn’t know what that means either, if I read it somewhere.
I’m just trying to make it sound intriguing and mysterious, because that creates attraction. That’s at least what my manliness coach says. But… uh… I guess saying that I have a manliness coach actually kind of ruins attraction.
I’ll have to ask him next session.
Anyway, if you want to check out the article on denn and see why Germans always add it to their questions, you can find it here:
And now let’s jump right in.
So, denn and weil are both words that introduce a sentence with a reason, so they’re both translations for because.
But they’re not just interchangeable, at least not without making “adjustments”.
Because they’re actually on three “dimensions”:
- tone,
- grammar and
- scope
The difference in tone is that denn sounds a fair bit more formal and scripted and it’s much more common in written German. I mean, it’s not like people don’t use it in spoken German, but it’s just less common than weil and it kind of gives the whole conversation a serious tone.
Kind of like when you’re in the break room and you’re having fun and then the project manager comes in and reminds of you of the tight time line. Like… the fun level just drops a bit.
It’s the two other differences, though, that REALLY matter, so let’s take a closer look.
How does “weil” work
The grammatical difference between weil is that weil is a subordinating conjunction while denn is a coordinating conjunction. Which is really not helping, because barely anyone knows what these terms actually mean.
So let’s be a bit more practical.
Take these two sentences:
- I ate a pizza yesterday.
- I was very hungry
Obviously, the second one gives us the reason for the first one, but so far, this connection is not made explicit in language. There are several ways to do that and using because is one of them.
And what they do is they “mark” the sentence they’re in as a reason AND – and this is more important – they kind of package it up as a box (a side-sentence) that we can integrate into the other sentence.
It’s what I call the why-box – a box that contains the answer to why.
And just like we can move around other elements like the time-element for instance, we can move around the why-box and plug it in different slots.
- [Because I was very hungry], I ate a pizza yesterday.
- Yesterday, I ate pizza [because I was very hungry].
And we can also use this box by itself to answer to a question.
- “Why did you eat pizza yesterday?”
“[Because I was very hungry.]”
Now, so far, this all also applies to German weil, but now comes the key difference.
And I’m sure most of you know what I mean. In English, the only difference between the bare sentence and the version that we packaged up as a why box was the word because.
In German however, all these “boxed” sentences (not just the why-boxes, but also when-boxes, where-boxes and so on), have a different sentence structure – ALL the verbs are at the end.
This is the normal sentence.
- Ich war sehr hungrig.
And here it is packaged up as a why-box:
- weil ich sehr hungrig war
And with this box we can do the same as in English, so we can put in into different slots (even more than in English)
- [Weil ich hungrig war], habe ich gerstern Pizza gegessen.
- Ich habe gestern Pizza gegessen, [weil ich hungrig war].
- Ich habe gestern, [weil ich hungrig war], Pizza gegessen.
And we can use it as a standalone answer to a why-question.
- “Warum hast du gestern Pizza gegessen?”
“Weil ich sehr hungrig war.”
Cool.
So weil packages up a sentence as a why box that gets INTEGRATED into another sentence, and in makes the verb go to the end because … German, that’s why!
Now let’s get to denn.
How does “denn” work
And denn is actually kind of like und, in that it “ties” a standalone sentence to another one. The only difference is that denn also marks its sentence as reason.
But that’s it.
It does NOT package it up and we CANNOT integrate the sentence into another one. And it does NOT make the verb move. In fact, in terms of structure it behaves like it’s not even there.
- Ich habe gestern Pizza gegessen [denn ich war sehr hungrig].
Now you might be like “Wait, that looks exactly like in English… I’m going to use denn a lot.”
But that’s really only on the surface and it’s super deceiving.
The denn-sentence is NOT integrated into the other one. The two are on the same level and the denn just ties the second one to the first as a reason.
We cannot move the denn-sentence around.
- Because I was very hungry, I ate pizza.
Denn war sehr hungrig, ich habe Pizza gegessen…. WRONG!!!
This makes zero sense in German. Like, for real… a native speaker might not understand what you’re trying to say.
And we can also not use denn-sentences as a direct answer.
- “Warum hast du Pizza gegessen?”
“Denn ich war sehr hungrig.”
This is understandable but it sounds SUPER strange.
Maybe it helps to think of denn as “And the reason for that is: …”
- I ate pizza, and the reason for that is: I was very hungry…. works
- Ich habe Pizza gegessen, denn ich war sehr hungrig….. works
- And the reason for that is: I was very hungry, I ate pizza…. SUPER NOPE
- Denn ich war sehr hungrig, ich habe Pizza gegessen. … SUPER NOPE!
- “Why did you eat pizza?”
“And the reason for that is: I was very hungry.”… NOPE NOPE NOPE - “Warum hast du Pizza gegessen?”
“Denn ich war sehr hungrig.”…. NOOOOOPE
Okay, this was a little over the top, but yeah, denn works NOTHING like because and weil is the real match, even with the whole verb at the end stuff.
Cool.
Let’s round everything up again for a quick recap.
“weil”
- weil and because package a sentence up as a why-box and INTEGRATE IT into another sentence.
- This why-box can be moved around into different slops.
- weil sends the verbs to the end of its section.
“denn”
- Denn marks a sentence as reason and ties it behind another one.
- It does NOT integrate it, both sentences are on the same top level.
- The denn-sentence MUST come after the part that it’s talking about.
- Denn does not change the word order.
So those are the differences in the “dimension” of grammar.
But as I said, there’s a third type of difference – the difference in scope.
The difference in Scope
And that’s actually the result of the difference in grammar.
Take this example.
- Maria is angry that the meeting was cancelled because she went to the office.
We have three parts here:
- Maria is angry.
- The meeting was cancelled.
- Maria went to the office.
Simple enough, right?
But actually, if you look closer, you’ll realize that it’s not clear what the because-part is actually referring to.
Is she angry because she went to the office for nothing. Or was the meeting cancelled because she went to the office.
When you first read the sentence, your brain probably decided for one of them but technically both are possible. We can’t know for sure, because we don’t know in which sentence the because-part is integrated.
- Maria is angry (that the meeting was cancelled) because she went to the office.
- (Maria is angry that) the meeting was cancelled because she went to the office.
Here’s how these would look as hierarchies:
- °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° [ ————–] [ —————] .
- °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° [ ————– (_________ ) ]
Yeah, not the most intuitive probably.
In the first version, we have one main sentence (level 0) , with integrated sentence on (level 1).
In the second version, we have one main sentence (level 0) with one integrated sentence (level 1) , which itself contains another integrated sentence (level 2).
If you’re starting to get bored or confused… me too. You don’t really have to remember this last bit. The only thing that matters here is that this is what I mean by “scope”.
If we only have two “parts” then it’s easy, but in more complex sentences with several integrated sentences, it is not always clear what the because-sentence is referring to – or in other words, what its scope is.
This is exactly the same for weil, because as we’ve learned, weil and because are the same in terms of function.
But it’s NOT the same for denn.
Why not?
Because denn does NOT integrate a sentence into another one. It just ties it behind. So a denn-sentence is ALWAYS a top-level sentence and so it can ONLY refer to other top level sentences.
- Maria ist sauer, dass das Meeting abgesagt wurde, denn sie ist ins Büro gegangen.
The denn sentence can ONLY refer to the bit about her being angry, NOT to the bit about the meeting, because the meeting part is integrated (it is level 1), while the denn-sentence is level 0.
Here’s how it would look in terms of hierarchy:
°°°°°°°°°°°°°, ——————,°°°°°°°°°°°°°.
So if you were wondering when you’d even ever use denn – here’s an example. denn comes in handy when you have a more complex sentence because for a weil-sentence, it’s not always clear where it is integrated and what it is referring to.
And denn sentence is ALWAYS a top-level sentence and refers to the main sentence.
This is nothing you have to worry about in daily life though.
Honestly, in daily life, my recommendation is to just stick with weil and be done with it.
And if you’re struggling with this whole verb at the end thing – well, in spoken German, people often don’t do that themselves.
But that’s a story for another day :)
And with that, we’ll wrap it up for today.
This was our look at the 3 ways weil and denn are different and why weil really is the better match to because.
I actually wanted to have a quiz here, but I completely forgot to prepare it before posting, so it’s not here now. But I will add it next week.
Until then, if you have any questions or suggestions, just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
So as far as I am aware of, there is also a difference in meaning.
“Denn” can be used in epistemic reasoning, while “weil” can’t. Here an example:
Das Essen muss fertig sein, denn es riecht gut.*Das Essen muss fertig sein, weil es gut riecht. (FALSCH!)
The second sentence is false because the fact that it smells good is not the CAUSE that lunch is ready, but just what makes us know that it is ready.
A cause would be something like:
Das Essen ist fertig, weil ich sie gekocht habe.
Interestingly, the other way around could be possible though:
Weil das Essen fertig ist, riecht es gut.
Here a famous second example:
Vater, vergib ihnen, denn sie wissen nicht, was sie tun.*Vater, vergib ihnen, weil sie nicht wissen, was sie tun.
The second phrase would imply that it is (the causal explanation) thanks to the fact that they don’t know what they are doing why they must be forgiven (so everyone in the same situation should be too) instead of simply implying something like “I see that they don’t know what they are doing, so please forgive them”, which is the actual correct meaning.
Wow, this is really interesting!!
Maybe I’ll work that into the article some day, but it’s amazing to have it in the comments for now.
I wanted to leave a rating but couldn’t find a place. This was VERY helpful. I’m using an app to study German for fun and travel, but there are no explanations for the grammar. Still I’ve learned way more than from any book or CD I’ve used over several years.
I’m happy to hear that :).
Also, out of curiosity, what app are you using?
Thanks for the great explanations. if you have not done so, will you please give examples of times when the German native speakers will not place the verb at the end of the clause after “weil”? I thought heard that before in a conversation and became confused.
Nah, I’ve not really talked about that yet.
Good topic though, I’ll add that to my list for “quick takes”.
“Denn sie hatte gerade erst in der Firma angefangen” I read this sentence in a book, is it possible to use Denn at the beggining of sentences?
Well, technically yes, but then you’re essentially just putting a full stop where there was a comma before.
In your book, the sentence before the denn-sentence will absolutely be the first “part” and the author chose to put a full stop for stylistic reasons. Gives it a more Stop and Go feeling.
But in a way, it’s artificial. The sentence is intrinsically connected to the one before, they’re one unit.
Hope that helps :)
Best explanation of this I’ve ever read! Thanks, Emanuel!
Hooray, that made me very happy, danke :)!!
Great article Emmanuel, I have been wondering about weil vs denn lately and why denn is not more often used. This is super helpful.
Super, das freut mich zu hören :)
Thank you so much Emanuel for the subscription and everyone else who is helping. You makes study fun and easy. Thanks a lot.
Thank you so much for the work you put in, and thanks for the subscription. I appreciate it as a broke student from Turkey.
You’re very welcome :)!
Hello : ) I just came across the following sentence with „denn“ (which starts a new paragraph). I struggled a bit with this one – I think i may have originally got confused by the comma between „Kiezdeutsch“ and „seine“ and thought the comma marked the beginning of a different clause – but the author is actually listing 3 things in the first sentence right?
„Denn die sprachliche Wirklichkeit von Kiezdeutsch, seine grammatische Innovationsleistung und seine systematische Einbettung ins Deutsch ist nur die eine Seite. Die andere Seite ist die gesellschaftliche Bewertung dieses neuens Dialekts , die oft äußerst negativ ausfällt. „
I have understood this sentence as something like
„The spoken reality, grammatical innovativeness, and structural relationship with German are one side of Kiezdeutsch. The other aspect is the broader social response to this new dialect, which is often expressed negatively. „
You mention „In fact, in terms of structure it (denn) behaves like it’s not even there.“ and this is a good example of that right ? i.e i don’t have „because“ in my translation. Or am i completely off on this??
Nah, the “denn” is definitely there in terms of meaning. What I meant is that it’s not there in terms of influencing the order of elements in the sentence.
The paragraph starts with “denn”, but it will still connect to something that was said before. I cannot just start out of nowhere. It needs something to relate to.
As for your translation, you have a minor mistake and a bigger one:
1) You missed the “nur”. That’s definitely a change in tone and you should keep it.
2) You phrased it as “are one side of Kiezdeutsch” but that’s NOT what the German text says. It that the spoken reality of Kiezdeutsch, the innovation […] are one side of “the issue/topic”.
The text doesn’t specify what “the topic” is, and your change might still be true to the intent, but it’s definitely a change and I think it’s too big a change from the original.
Hi, thanks very much for your feedback, that’s very helpful. I’ve looked at this again and what you say makes sense. You are right about the relationship to the previous paragraph. Regarding your second point I felt it made it more readable and I’d say it doesn’t really change much / if anything but on reflection its not a totally rigourous translation, . I made a second attempt.
The reason for this is the spoken reality of Kiezdeutsch, as well as its grammatical innovativeness, and its structural relationship with German are only the one side of the matter. The other side is the broader social response to this new dialect, which is often expressed negatively.
thank you so much for the hard work.. and for the subscription, I appreciate it
Let’s say I have a sentence like, “Er hört nie auf zu quatschen!”
Then which of these would I say:
1. Ich bin genervt weil er nie aufhört zu quatschen
2. Ich bin genervt weil er nie zu quatschen aufhört
3. Ich bin genervt weil er nie auf zu quatschen hört
Pretty sure that last one is wrong, but honestly all of them seem somehow clumsy.
My instinct says it’s option 1, but if so then is “zu quatschen” part of the whybox? If not then it implies we can say, “Weil er nie aufhört, bin ich genervt, zu quatschen.” which seems to totally change the meaning.
But if it is part of the whybox then why isn’t the verb at the end like it should be?
zu-constructions are mostly treated like they’re separate side-sentences (like a dass-sentence or a weil-sentence).
That’s why version 1 is the most idiomatic, since the side sentence with “zu” comes after the container sentence has finished (the weil-sentence)
Version 2 is also okay, because just like a weil-sentence, you can also move a zu-construction around. It’s a box like any other.
Version 3 is REALLY weird because you’re splitting a prefix from its verb. That’s a no no.
Does that help?
As noted by someone earlier, “denn” is most closely related to the old-English “for,” which is (was) also a coordinating conjunction. “Weil” is more like the common English “because.” We don’t use “for” as a coordinating conjunction anymore, other than perhaps in a poetic sense, and never in spoken language. Here would be the difference: “Get ready, because (weil) I’m about to do a magic trick” versus “Prepare yourselves, for (denn) you are about to witness prestidigitation of the finest order!” Something like that. The why-box in the first sentence can be moved, but the second sentence is fixed and its order cannot be changed.
Yup, in terms of structure they’re the same, but as others mentioned in the comments, “denn” is FAR more common in daily life than “for” is in English.
I wish you’d stuck to “subordinating” and “coordinating” conjunctions (joining words). I would have found it much clearer, and I think it would have been easier to explain. Thanks for for the tip about formality though!
Well, it’s easier if you know what these words mean and how they work in German, but most people don’t know that.
Maybe I could add a “The short version” section where I say that.
But its easy to look up what the grammar terms mean in almost any grammar book. I found your article very tortuous and would have preferred something much simpler. Using established grammar terms is a short cut, After all in most subjects you need to learn the accepted vocabulary otherwise you are constantly trying to understand the authors way of thinking.
Nevertheless, your Word for the day German is Easy is usually my first port of call and you definitely explain meanings and usage that dictionaries simply do not provide, so thanks.
I’ll definitely give this article another look and see if I can straighten it up a little bit.
My point was that I think making a distinction between “time” and “conditional” leaves a lot of instances where it’s not clear or the rule is even misleading.
“conditional” vs “time” only covers part of the issue, not all of it.
Thanks. This was very helpful to me, [denn?] I’ve never understood the difference.
Yup, your “denn” fits there perfectly :)
It seems that “denn” also has a very *informal* use, as in questions like “Wie denn?” or “Was denn?”
Yes, I’m talking about that in the article on “denn” itself:
https://yourdailygerman.com/denn-meaning/
*I talk about that
This situations requires the simple present, I think because it’s a euphemistic/conceptual use of “talk”.
As far as I can think, “I’m talking about XYZ” would always imply that the speaker is currently talking out loud in the present moment. Or colloquially used, e.g. “The bike was properly pimped up. I’m talking (about) subwoofer on the pannier rack, disco lights on the handle bars.”
If you’re referring to what a text “talks” about, it can’t literally “talk” so it can never be actively “talking” in the present moment.
<3
Oh, interesting example!!
How would it be if this was actually a podcast. Could I then say that I’m “talking” in the other episode, or does that still sound “too current”?
Oh, and glad the commenting is back online for you :)!
It still sounds a little weird, but not impossible(*)! You’d probably still go with “I talk about that in the other episode”.
(*) One place where “talking” in that sense might come up is if someone asks you to resolve a perceived conflict between two of your podcasts (say). In that case you can use something like: “In episode 234 I am talking about utilitarianism more generally, while in episode 345 the discussion is focused solely on the idea of effective altruism.” Or “what I’m talking about there is the invention of…”. But it’d still be more common to push things into the past a little: “In episode 234 I was talking about the …, while here we’re dealing with …”.
I think I get it. Slowly, stone by stone the Dome of English past tense is having been erected in my speech.
Not. Sure. If. Irony. At. Play. Here. (But definitely hoping that I’m not to blame for that final sentence in the previous comment!)
ps The banner ad for Anja’s course seems to have played havoc with the positioning of the menu-bar as you scroll down the page (at least on Chrome and Safari). It’s permanently pushed down from the top of the tab by the height of the ad, even when the latter isn’t visible.
Irony confirmed :)
As for the wayward bar… that’s the fine interplay between server cache, browser cache, css changes and a sticky positioning working its magic. Of course everything looks fine on my test devices, like always. I thoroughly hate these caches, but I need them for Pagespeed.
Could you try a full reload? That should fix it.
Excellent: I think we’re back on board. Lost the ability to see any comments for a few days there, aber so etwas wie ein Gleichgewicht ist jetzt in Sicht!
Land ho!
Actually, I now had this issue with the comments, too, on one phone, but was not able to recreate it on another with both of them running Chrome/Android.
It also crashed the credit card sign up field which cost me MONEY!
I start hating my hosting company. (*reeeeeeees in German)
:-))
How do you say, “(Maria is angry that) the meeting was cancelled because she went to the office.”?
Not sure what you’re looking for… do you want the stuff in () omitted?
If so, then it’s a standard because sentence that you can translate either way, with “denn” or “weil”.
Give it a try and I’ll give you feedback.
Is this true?! I haven’t really caught this in native speakers so far, but maybe I have just missed it.
Only for “weil”, not for other “trigger words” like “als” or “wenn”.
But yeah, for “weil” it’s really common in spoken German.
I can verify this from personal experience too.
A great explanation on WHY you would choose one or the other (assuming one has enough vocabulary to make it work. Thank you. ! I think you need a gold start next to the sentence that starts ” So if you were wondering when you’d even ever use denn…” to really highlight the crux. It totally makes sense. I personally think they cancelled the meeting because…well…nobody digs Maria at her workplace. It’s kind of sad actually. :)
On another note – I have been asking a question – and follow ups – for the word “Brieftasche” but I don’t think that you were getting notifications of it.
Oh, I indeed don’t remember seeing anything about that. Could you ask me again or point me to where you posted that?
Yes – the word “brieftasche” in the dictionary. Here is the URL when I am there: https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning/brieftasche/#comment-66964
Somebody mentioned “for” (as a conjunction), which is definitely the closest English equivalent to “denn,” both grammatically and in meaning. But that sounds pretty old-timey:
(disclaimer: not actual old English)
For is nowhere near as old-timey I would say :)
What’s “for Io”, by the way?
it’s an old fairy-tale way of speaking. “Lo” is a poetic way to say “Behold!”. It’s something you say meaning: “because, well, just look”.
Oh, cool, danke :)
“checke thys outte:”
Somehow this completely cracked me up :D
I’m pretty much always cycling through Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series at any given time, which is probably at least partially what inspired that line
me too. As Grandma always said: “Simple things amuse simple people.” …..and so glad I am.
‘For’ as a conjunction actually is very old-fashioned; I don’t know anyone that uses it in modern English.
Yeah, you will sound like a Renaissance fair worker if you use “for” as a conjunction in conversation. Even in writing it’s really completely antiquated.
Lo is still commonly used in the phrase “Lo and behold”. Both of those words sound really grand and Shakespearean if used individually to draw attention to something, but used together in that phrase it can sound casual af, often quite tongue-in-cheek.
Examples:
“Lo” solo:
In the Bible, when Gabriel visits the virgin Mary to tell her she’s preggers… “And lo! The angel of the Lord appeared before her.”
“Behold” solo:
“Behold with thine own eyes! Gaze upon the field in which I grow my fucks and thou shalt see that it is barren!” Adapted from a meme but basically “behold” fits perfectly into this kind of old school language.
“Lo and behold”:
Maria to her BFF: “Thomas “lost” his wallet so I had to pay for date night again. Then we get back in the car to drive home and lo and behold it was in his coat pocket the whole time…”
I love “lo and behold”, and you’re right, it’s one of those rare instances where two or more old-school words conspire to create an expression that doesn’t really sound archaic at all. I can’t actually think of a sentence where “lo” alone would be used unironically: heck, you’d be much more likely hear “yo” instead. “Yo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit”. Yeah, well, umm, OK: maybe not…
And yep, “behold” also reeks a little of grandeur (“Behold the Man!”), and almost *demands* an exclamation mark, but you do sometimes still hear it in the expression “He/She/It was a sight to behold”, or perhaps “…something to behold”. Dated, yep, but only by a generation or so :-)
Wow, mind blown!!
I always thought it was “low and behold” and I never thought about what the origin of that could mean. Makes so much more sense now!!
I’ll probably use “lo” at some point. It’s not as cool as “lest” but still… got potential.
I know this is off the topic but I cannot find anywhere to ask a question: is there a bookmark facility – to come back to something when I am not so tired?
I don’t really have such a function, the only way is to bookmark in the browser.
It’s a nice idea, though. I’ll see if there’s a piece of software for that.