V2 rule

One of the most important rules in German is the Verb-Second (V2) rule. In main clauses, the verb is always the second element, no matter what comes first.

Heute ich gehe in den Park. Heute gehe ich in den Park.	Today I’m going to the park. “Today go I to the park.”
Gestern regnete es stark.	It rained heavily yesterday. “Yesterday rained it heavily.”

In this sentence, we’ve put heute to the front of the sentence for emphasis. Notice how, due to the V2 rule, the verb then comes before the subject.

This rule is actually very common in other Germanic languages (German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish etc.) but has mostly disappeared from English apart from in a few weird constructions:

Here comes the bus.
Neither do I.
Never in my life have I seen such a thing

This is something you will get used to with exposure, but it’s important to pay attention to, as it’s a common mistake made by learners.

Next let’s look at how to form questions.