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I am learning the Tekamolo rule but I have a question: What if we have Dativ and Akkusativ objects too ?

For example I have a sentence

Ein Journalist interviewte vor Kurzem Jugendliche auf der Straße

Why Jugendliche here is not after auf der Straße? As far as I know Jugendliche is Akkusativ here.

and another sentence :

Außerdem wollte der Reporter sie gern ins Studio einladen

is ins Studio here Lokal ?

PS: My question is about where to place objects with regard to other sentence words

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  • 7
    Just being curious, what is the Tekamolo rule?
    – infinitezero
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 14:41
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    @infinitezero TeKaMoLo is short for the German words temporal, kausal, modal and lokal. The rule basically says that the order of boxes in a German sentence usually is: Te – ka – mo – lo. when – why – how – where.
    – M4HdYaR
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 14:42
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    The rule already states usually i.e. not always. German is really flexible in terms of sentence structure.
    – infinitezero
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 14:44
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    well, the accepted answer in related question says "don't trust this rule to much" - and I can second that. Again.
    – Shegit Brahm
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 15:01
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    Tekamolo by itself says nothing about objects. If your textbook says something about the position of objects, you should include that in the question.
    – David Vogt
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 16:24

2 Answers 2

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The problems is connected to what auf der Straße relates.

As the sentence is written, it would assume it refers to Jugendliche. Of course one could also want to specify, where the interview took place, where the reporter was, where the reporter found the people to interview or even something else.

Im afraid, that the word order is dependent on the intended statement.

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  • good point, it offers the option, that the youth is living on the streets and got interviewd, in that case a reordering would fail. It might be insisted, that "Jugendliche von der Straße" could be used here, that is still not precise.
    – Shegit Brahm
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 15:06
  • Thanks for your answer and information, So you mean if I want to stress the auf der Straße then the sentence should be changed to Ein Journalist interviewte vor Kurzem auf der Straße Jugendliche?
    – M4HdYaR
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 15:07
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    @M4HdYaR: Emphasis is a secondary issue (clearly: the earlier, the more emphasized), but I would like to have clarified first, what the intended message is.
    – guidot ♦
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 15:23
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While it might be the preferred order to have the accusative at the end, it might be over-ruled by the desired information structure.

Is it important that the reporter interviewed young people, or that they did their interviewing on the street? Generally, more important elements come later in the sentence, and I would assume that in this sentence the location where the interview happened is more important than the details of the subjects.

If neither was emphasised, then one would use the 'normal', unmarked, order.

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  • But as you can see the answer here german.stackexchange.com/q/6266/1696 he said the more relevant comes later! And young people are of course more relevant than on the street
    – M4HdYaR
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 14:58
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    @M4HdYaR: the relevance stressing is combined with the verb. So it comes to question: are the interviewed youth or the interview's location more relevant?
    – Shegit Brahm
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 15:04
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    @M4HdYaR Yes, that's what I said. What is important depends on the intended meaning: in this sentence the location seems more relevant. Unless, as in guidot's answer, it's interviewte [Jugendliche auf der Strasse] rather than interviewte [Jugendliche] auf der Strasse
    – Oliver Mason
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 15:08
  • But I'm now confused :/ Guidot says that Jugendliche comes first so it is more important!
    – M4HdYaR
    Commented Apr 15, 2020 at 15:12

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