Word order following the word "also"

Question

After the word "also", do you need to use any change of word order? I.e. invert the subject and verb or does it stay unchanged like when one uses "und" oder "aber"?

Zum Beispiel:

Es gefällt mir sehr also ich werde/werde ich es kaufen.

Answer 1

It can be used either way but it carries a different meaning

Also [pause] ich werde jetzt gehen.

This is kind of concluding some discussion that has taken place before but it doesn't mean that my going is directly cause by whatever has been said before also. I am hesitant as to how to translate that but my pick would be

All right [pause] I'll leave now.

There is also a version without comma.

Also ICH werde jetzt gehen.

Also DAS finde ich nicht so gut.

In these sentences you will usually have a somewhat strong stress on the word that comes right after "also" and it has no "causal" connotation whatsoever. It is more like "for my part" or simply "well".

Well I for my part will leave now.

Well, THAT I don't fancy that much.

And then finally, there is the conjunction. This is indeed introducing a consequence, very much like the English "so" does.

Also bin ich gegangen.

So I left.

Answer 2

Depends...

If "also" is used as an adverb it doesn't change anything.

Das ist das Geheimnis.
Das ist also das Geheimnis.

But it can also be used as a conjunctive adverb (Konjunktionaladverb) to start a sentence and then the same rules apply as for the other conjunctive adverbs:

Es gefällt mir, also werde ich es kaufen.
Es gefällt mir, deshalb werde ich es kaufen.
Es gefällt mir, später werde ich es kaufen.

as in contrast to conjunctions

Es gefällt mir und ich werde es kaufen.

or subjunctions

Es gefällt mir, weil ich es kaufen werde.

(Note: My examples aimed at the word order, the meaning of those sentences is of course not the same.)

Source

But as seen on wiktionary, it can also be used to continue an interrupted thought and is no conjunctive adverb:

Also ich denke, dass das so nicht weiter gehen kann.

Answer 3

As far as I know "also" definitely counts as "position 1", so to speak, so in your example you put the verb after it:

Es gefällt mir also werde ich es kaufen.

Answer 4

Also is usually a conjunctive adverb and doesn't change the word order in its clause. But as an adverb it counts in the word order, so the verb has to follow straight in order to be in 2nd position:

Es gefällt mir sehr, also werde ich es kaufen.

Also can also be a particle and it could be used as such in your example:

Es gefällt mir sehr, also ich werde es kaufen.

But this is bad style. Semantically, both versions convey the same connection between the clauses, but the syntax in the particle version is inferior. Its a plain concatenation of two syntactically unrelated sentences into one even with a comma instead of a semi colon. The connotation is, that es gefällt mir sehr isn't really the reason or at least not the only one for ich werde es kaufen. If you want to convey that, then do it with a semi colon or two separate sentences:

Es gefällt mir sehr; also, ich werde es kaufen.

Es gefällt mir sehr. Also, ich werde es kaufen.