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What are Concessive Clauses? (Konzessivsätze)
Concessive clauses (Konzessivsätze) are subordinate clauses that express an opposing idea or a limitation. That means something that doesn't logically follow from the main clause or is different from what you'd expect.
They begin with either „obwohl“ or „obgleich“.
Difference between Causal and Concessive Clauses
Causal Clauses (Kausalsätze - weil) (= logically connected)
- „Ich habe die Prüfung bestanden, weil ich viel gelernt habe.“
The logical outcome of the condition „viel lernen“ is „die Prüfung bestehen“. - „Weil ich viel Geld habe, kaufe ich mir ein neues Auto.“
The expected result of the condition „viel Geld haben“ is „ein neues Auto kaufen“.
Concessive Clauses (Konzessivsätze - obwohl) (= unexpected outcome)
- „Ich habe die Prüfung nicht bestanden, obwohl ich viel gelernt habe.“
In this case the expectation wasn't met. You would think that studying a lot would lead to passing the exam, but in this case it didn't happen. - „Obwohl ich viel Geld habe, kaufe ich mir kein neues Auto.”
In this case, it's logical that having a lot of money would lead to buying a car. However, I didn't buy a car.
Attention:
„Trotz dass“ is a synonym of „obwohl/obgleich“. „Selbst wenn“, „auch wenn“ and „sogar wenn“ do not describe a situation that definitely occurs / has occurred, but a condition that may occur, and one performs the action of the main clause (unexpectedly) anyway.
Summary
- Concessive clauses are subordinate clauses that express an opposing idea or limitation.
- The subordinate clause talks about something that doesn't logically follow from the main clause or is different from what you’d expect.
- The conjunctions are „obwohl“ and „obgleich“ (there is no difference between „obwohl“ and „obgleich“).
Related Topics:
„obwohl“- Konzessivsätze are subordinate clauses. Subordinate clauses are introduced by the following Unterordnende Konjunktionen (Subordinating Conjunctions):
- „dass“- Ergänzungen (Contemplementary Clauses)
- „weil/da“- Kausalsätze (Causal Clauses)
- „damit“- Finalsätze (Final Clauses)
- „wenn/falls“- Konditionalsätze (Conditional Clauses)
- „so dass“- Konsekutivsätze (Consecutive Clauses)
- „indem“- Modalsätze (Modal Clauses)
- „als/wenn“- Temporalsätze (Temporal Clauses)
- Temporal Konjunktionen (Temporal Conjunctions)
Subordinate Clauses include:
- Indirekte Fragen (Indirect Questions)
- Relativsätze (Relative Clauses)
- Infinitiv mit zu (Infinitive Clauses)
- „um/ohne/anstatt... zu...“-Infinitivkonstruktionen (Infinitive Construction)
More information on Sentence Structure and Word order: Satzbau
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