Which is the main clause in this sentence?

Question

Was mich unbedingt noch interessiert ist, ob es bei der Diagnose dieser Krankheit bestimmte Zeitvorgaben gibt.

Which of the two sentences is the "Hauptsatz" and which is the "Nebensatz"? The verb is coming at the end of both!

Answer 1

This is not an answer to the original question but to the following question you posted as comment to Stephie's answer:

Why this construction is wrong?

Was interessiert mich unbedingt noch, ob es bei der Diagnose dieser Krankheit bestimmte Zeitvorgaben gibt.

This sentence is actually an abbreviation of:

Das, was mich unbedingt noch interressiert, ist, ob es ...

When we look at the elements of the sentence we have:

[[Das][, was mich unbedingt noch interessiert,]] [ist] [, ob es ...]

The first element of the main clause consists of two sub-elements: The word "Das" and a relative clause describing the word "Das".

So actually you have two relative clauses in this sentence:

• was mich unbedingt noch interessiert
• ob es bei der Diagnose dieser Krankheit bestimmte Zeitvorgaben gibt.

You can see that the verb ("interessiert", "gibt") is the last element of each of these relative clauses.

You could of course re-word the sentence in a way that "interessieren" is the verb of the main clause:

Mich interessiert unbedingt noch, ob es ...

The word "Was" is no longer present then.

Answer 2

If you are ordering two elements, the second will also be the last. Look at your example:

[Was mich unbedingt noch interessiert] [ist],

Mentally replace the first bracket with “Das” and it becomes more obvious:

[Das] [ist],

There’s your main clause.

And

[ob] [es] [bei der Diagnose dieser Krankheit] [bestimmte Zeitvorgaben] [gibt].

Finite verb at the end: Subordinate clause.