nebenordnende

The term nebenordnende refers to a aspect of grammar that describes coordination in which sentence elements are linked on the same syntactic level. In German grammar, this is the process of joining independent clauses or equal syntactic units to form a compound structure, as opposed to subordination, which creates a hierarchical relationship through subordinate clauses. The idea is central to the concept of coordination, or Parataxe, where the connected parts have equal status within the sentence.

Nei denordnende connections are realized primarily through coordinating conjunctions and punctuation rules. The standard coordinating conjunctions in German include und (and), oder (or), aber (but), denn (for), sowie and sondern (but rather); in many cases, these words join whole clauses or phrases of equal importance. When two main clauses are connected, each clause typically retains its own verb-second (V2) position, reflecting the parallel structure of the coordinated units. This contrasts with unterordnende elements, which introduce subordinate clauses and affect the main clause’s syntactic rank and verb placement.

In practice, nebenordnende constructions cover simple coordinate phrases (such as lists joined by und) as well as more complex sentences where two independent clauses are linked by a coordinating conjunction. They can also appear with punctuation, commonly a comma before the coordinating conjunction when both sides form complete clauses, depending on syntactic and stylistic considerations.

See also: coordination, unterordnung, parataxe, hypotaxe, conjunction, Hauptsatz, Nebensatz.