Participle clauses: Am Bahnhof angekommen, rief Otti Frida an

Partizip II: Am Bahnhof angekommen, …

In B2 participles stood before a noun: die gestern gekaufte Lampe. A participle can also stand on its own with its own words and describe the subject of the main clause: Am Bahnhof angekommen, rief Otti Frida an. This is a participle clause. The participle goes to the end of the group, a comma usually follows, and the whole group is position 1: the verb of the main clause comes straight after it.

A Partizip II of a verb with sein (ankommen, aufwachsen) means that this happened first: Otti arrived, then he called. A Partizip II of a verb with an object has a passive meaning: Von der Kritik getroffen, schwieg Emil (the criticism hurt Emil).

The group has no subject of its own: it always belongs to the subject of the main clause.

• Oben auf dem Gipfel angekommen, holte Kalle eine Thermoskanne mit heißem Tee aus dem Rucksack.

  Having reached the summit, Kalle took a thermos of hot tea out of his rucksack.

• Von der Kritik des Kunden getroffen, schwieg Emil den ganzen Abend.

  Hurt by the customer's criticism, Emil said nothing all evening.

• In Lübars aufgewachsen, erinnert sich Frau Hilde noch gut an die Felder und Pferde der Nachkriegszeit.

  Having grown up in Lübars, Frau Hilde still remembers the fields and horses of the post-war years well.

Partizip I: Laut lachend verließ Bruno den Raum

A group with a Partizip I describes something that happens at the same time as the main clause, usually how someone does something: Laut lachend verließ Bruno den Raum. Bruno laughed and left the room at the same moment.

The comma after the group is optional. After one or two words people usually leave it out (Laut lachend verließ …), after a longer group they often put it in (Den Gästen aufmerksam zuhörend, notierte …).

The group can also follow the main clause, after a comma: Frida stand lange am Fenster, nachdenklich auf die Straße blickend. This sounds very literary; you find it in novels and memoirs.

• Laut lachend verließ Bruno den Raum, und niemand wusste, worüber er eigentlich lachte.

  Laughing loudly, Bruno left the room, and nobody knew what he was actually laughing about.

• Den Gästen aufmerksam zuhörend, notierte Otti jedes Argument auf einer Karteikarte.

  Listening carefully to the guests, Otti noted down every argument on an index card.

• Frida stand lange am Fenster, nachdenklich auf die Straße blickend.

  Frida stood at the window for a long time, looking thoughtfully down at the street.

To a subordinate clause and back

A participle clause is a short subordinate clause. To understand it, turn it back into one: add a conjunction and the subject, and make the participle a normal verb again.

Which conjunction? The participle clause doesn't say; the context does. A Partizip II of a sein verb usually becomes nachdem with the Plusquamperfekt: Nachdem Otti am Bahnhof angekommen war, rief er Frida an. A passive one often becomes weil: Weil Emil von der Kritik getroffen war, schwieg er. A Partizip I becomes während, or simply und: Bruno lachte laut und verließ den Raum.

To write one, go the other way: the conjunction, the subject and the helping verb disappear. Only do it when both parts have the same subject: Am Bahnhof angekommen, regnete es is wrong, because it wasn't the rain that arrived. And if the meaning gets unclear, keep the conjunction: Obwohl gut vorbereitet, war Lotte nervös.

• Nachdem Otti am Hauptbahnhof angekommen war, rief er sofort Frida an und fragte nach dem Weg.

  After Otti had arrived at the main station, he rang Frida straight away and asked the way.

• Am Hauptbahnhof angekommen, rief Otti sofort Frida an und fragte nach dem Weg.

  Having arrived at the main station, Otti rang Frida straight away and asked the way.

• Obwohl gut vorbereitet, war Lotte vor ihrem ersten Seminar ziemlich nervös.

  Although well prepared, Lotte was quite nervous before her first seminar.

Where it fits: written style and set phrases

Participle clauses are typical of written German: novels, memoirs, reports, the news. They make a text compact and lively, but too many in a row sound stiff. In conversation people prefer a subordinate clause or two main clauses joined with und.

A few participle groups are everyday speech, though, and very useful in discussions and essays: ehrlich gesagt (to be honest), kurz gesagt (in short), genau genommen (strictly speaking), abgesehen davon (apart from that), verglichen mit (compared with), angenommen (supposing). After most of them the verb follows straight away: Genau genommen hat Otti recht. Angenommen is followed by a comma and a whole clause: Angenommen, es regnet, was machen wir dann?

• Genau genommen hat Otti recht: Am Sonntag haben die meisten Menschen Zeit zum Lesen.

  Strictly speaking, Otti is right: on Sundays most people have time to read.

  The tinted words form set phrases: Recht haben, Zeit haben

• Verglichen mit dem Parkplatz nebenan ist es unter den alten Platanen acht Grad kühler.

  Compared with the car park next door, it's eight degrees cooler under the old plane trees.

• Ehrlich gesagt hätte ich nie gedacht, dass mein Kurierdienst einmal ein eigenes Büro braucht.

  To be honest, I never thought my courier service would one day need an office of its own.

  The tinted words form a set phrase: ehrlich gesagt