Dass clauses

We already know that dass is a subordinating conjunction meaning "that".

At this time, we must remember a concept we learned earlier, namely, the government of the verb. Some verbs want direct objects, some want dative objects, some want a particular preposition. And there are verbs, that require a dass clause.

As in English, dass clauses are usually demanded by particular verbs in the main clause, like to believe that, wish that, hope that, write that, etc. Once you get the hang of constructing the clauses with the verb at the end, it will soon come naturally!

Here are some dass-clauses: The "normal" construction of the dependent clause (if it were independent) is given in parentheses.

Present:

Perfect:

With modal auxilliary:

With separable prefix:

dass Omitted

We don't like to hear the same word over and over again. Since dass is used so frequently,  Germans sometimes drop it (as we do in English: I hope [that] you can come. He said [that] it was true). So, even though certain verbs "demand" a dass-clause, and the sentence can be completed with one, there is an alternative way to construct it.

German allows you to omit dass after verbs like annehmen, sagen, glauben, annehmen, meinen, wünschen, (be)fürchten.

Without dass, the verb in the second clause goes back to its normal position! It is constructed like an independent clause, separated from the main clause not by a conjunction but by a comma.

The average German speaker uses the construction with dass more often than the version without dass.

In the dialogues of the former chapters we avoided dass wherever possible. Since you know dass now,  you will encounter it more often.

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