Function Words & Connectors

In the C-test, a surprising amount hinges on the smallest words. der, mit, weil, deshalb: these words carry almost no meaning, yet they hold the sentence together. And that is exactly what makes them your most reliable gap-fillers. A function word belongs to a closed word class, so there are only a handful of candidates. Often a two- or three-letter stub already fixes the whole word: obw... can only become obwohl, and des... points almost certainly to deshalb or deswegen.

That is a gift. Where content words sometimes force you to guess, function words are predictable. If you carry the article declension table in your head and recognise the common connectors, you collect points here calmly and quickly. This page gives you the full tables and drills each group directly on a gap.

Quick rule: Short stumps = function words: article, preposition, connector. Closed class — the list of candidates is small and learnable. Verb position gives away the connector type.

Why function words are gold in the C-test

In the C-test, the second half of every second word is deleted. In a long content word that leaves plenty of room. In a short function word, by contrast, the stub narrows the options at once, and the sentence structure supplies the rest: case, verb position and meaning almost always point to exactly one word.

Remember three questions to ask at every function-word gap:

• Which case? This controls the article and the preposition.
• Where is the verb? A verb at the end means a subordinate clause, so a subordinating conjunction (weil, dass, obwohl). A verb in second position right after the gap means a connector (deshalb, trotzdem).
• Which meaning? Reason, contrast, purpose or time? Meaning separates weil from obwohl and deshalb from trotzdem.

Articles: der, die, das and their declension

The definite article is the single most common function-word gap. Its stub is short (d...), so you have to derive the form from gender and case. Before reading on: what is the definite article in dative masculine? Check yourself by filling in the gaps below:

Did you feel it? You didn't guess those endings, you read them straight off gender and case, and the form fell into place on its own.

The indefinite article (ein) follows the same pattern, just without plural forms. Fill in this table too:

The complete tables, with every cell, the explanations, and the possessive article, live in Case Reference: the Article Tables, your reference for the whole series. Here you only drill the recall.

Case Reference: the Article Tables (full reference)

Pay special attention to the dative and genitive forms: dem, der, des show up in almost every longer text. The genitive often gives itself away through the -s on the following noun (des Hauses, des Regens).

Drop the right article forms in from the word bank. At every gap, ask first about the case, then about the gender of the following noun:

Haus is neuter and stands after das ist in the nominative, so das. geben requires a dative object and Kind is neuter, hence dem. danken takes the dative and Lehrerin is feminine, so der. für demands the accusative and Roman is masculine, hence den. The forms die and des from the bank are left over.

Prepositions and their case

Prepositions are short and usually sit right before the article, which makes them popular gaps. Their trick: every preposition governs a fixed case. Once you know the groups, you know immediately which article form follows. Here is the full overview:

The two-way prepositions follow the question: direction (Wohin?) takes the accusative, location (Wo?) takes the dative. Many verbs also bind a fixed preposition (warten auf, denken an, sich freuen über). Once you see the verb, the preposition is often already settled.

Fill in only the missing letters after the stub, C-test style. The beginning is already there, you write the rest:

dur... with the accusative (die Stadt) becomes durch (rest: ch). The verb warten binds the preposition auf, so au... becomes auf (rest: f), not aus. fü... before dich in the accusative becomes für (rest: r). All three are accusative prepositions: a safe pattern.

Conjunctions: und, aber, weil, dass, obwohl, damit

Conjunctions join sentences. For the C-test you must tell two types apart, because they change the word order:

• Coordinating (position 0, the verb stays in second position): und, oder, aber, denn, sondern.
• Subordinating (the verb moves to the end of the clause): weil, dass, wenn, als, obwohl, damit, ob, bevor, nachdem, während.

The decisive clue is verb position: if the verb sits at the end of the clause the gap is in, you need a subordinating conjunction. weil and denn both mean a reason, but weil sends the verb to the end while denn leaves it in second position.

Choose the right conjunction from the word bank. Watch the verb position and the meaning:

In the first sentence möchte stands at the end and the sense is a reason, so weil (not denn, which would pull the verb forward). The second sentence expresses a contrast (it is hard, but I do not give up), that is obwohl. The third names a content after hoffen, that is dass. Left over are damit, aber and denn.

Connectors: deshalb, trotzdem, außerdem, jedoch

Connectors (also called linking adverbs) tie two main clauses together in meaning. Unlike conjunctions they count as a full sentence element in position 1, so the verb moves directly behind them (inversion): Es regnete. Deshalb blieben wir zu Hause. This inversion is your recognition mark in the C-test.

Meaning separates the groups cleanly: deshalb draws a consequence (because A, therefore B), trotzdem sets a resistance against it (A, but nevertheless B). Do not mix the two up, that is the most common meaning error.

Again, add only the missing letters. The stub of each connector is almost always unique:

Desh... with the following inversion (blieben wir) and the meaning of consequence becomes deshalb (rest: alb). Note: des... alone would still be ambiguous, desh... makes it safe. auße... adds something (cold on top of far away), so außerdem (rest: rdem), not the preposition außer. jed... before machten wir weiter expresses a contrast, that is jedoch (rest: och), not jeder.

Match each connector to its function in the sentence:

Two-part connectors and fine control

These paired connectors and the extra single words belong to the C1 tier. If you are aiming for B1/B2, feel free to skim this section and rely on the connectors from the chapter above.

Some connectors come in pairs: the first half announces the structure, the second half delivers the point. In the C-test, usually only one half of the pair is marked as a gap, but as soon as you recognise the first part, you know almost for certain which word must follow later, and vice versa. On top of that come a few high-frequency single words that were still missing from the connectors chapter above.

Two traps lurk here especially often: nämlich sounds like a connector with inversion, but it does not require one, because it usually sits mid-sentence right after the finite verb and never at the start of a clause. And falls feels like wenn, but it likewise sends the verb to the end, because just like wenn it is a subordinating conditional word.

Fill in the missing half of the pair and the ending of nämlich. Watch the fixed pairing, not just the individual meaning:

Zw... introduces the concession, which the following main clause counters with aber, so zwar (rest: ar). The second sentence gives a reason that sits mid-sentence right after the finite verb gibt, so nämlich (rest: ich), not a subordinating conjunction, which would stand at the start of the clause.

Modal and auxiliary verbs: the V2 anchors

Modal and auxiliary verbs are near-unbeatable gaps in the C-test: in statements they sit almost always in position 2, the finite verb. They belong to a closed class of just nine verbs, and their stub, combined with the number and person of the subject, almost automatically fixes the right form. If you can recall the nine verbs' forms reliably, you win almost every one of these gaps.

werden is the most versatile of the nine: it forms the future tense, the passive voice, and, in the form würde, the Konjunktiv II of almost any other verb. The full breakdown of all three functions, with drills, lives in Verbformen & Tempus.

Verbformen & Tempus: werden's three functions

Fill in the missing letters. Watch the number of the subject and the passive construction:

müs... follows the plural subject Die Studierenden, hence müssen (rest: sen), not the singular form muss. wi... stands before the participle veröffentlicht at the end of the clause, that is the passive construction with wird (rest: rd), not the future or the würde-form.

The quick decision: spot the stub, drop in the word

Because function words form a closed class, it pays to know the most common stubs like vocabulary. See the stub, know the word. This table bundles the most reliable matches:

When two words share the same short stub (des... for deshalb and deswegen), wait for the next letter or read the meaning: both mean the same thing, and if in doubt the length of the gap decides.

To finish, a mixed gap. At each spot, first work out verb position and meaning, then reach for the word bank:

In the first sentence ankomme stands at the end and the sense is temporal, that is wenn (subordinate clause, verb at the end). In the second sentence the verb moves forward (kam ich), so a connector is at work, and the contrast (sick, but came anyway) calls for trotzdem, not deshalb. In the third sentence vergesse stands at the end and the sense is a purpose, that is damit. Left over are weil and deshalb.

Common mistakes

Mixing up deshalb and trotzdem. deshalb draws a logical consequence, trotzdem a contradiction. Check: does "because A, therefore B" (deshalb) or "A, but nevertheless B" (trotzdem) fit?

Ignoring verb position. If the verb is at the end, you need a subordinating conjunction (weil, obwohl, damit), not a connector. If the verb moves right behind the gap, it is a connector (deshalb, trotzdem).

Overlooking the case of the preposition. After mit, bei, zu comes the dative, after für, durch, ohne always the accusative. If the article gap sits next to it, the preposition fixes its form.

Guessing too early from too short a stub. des... alone is not enough to choose deshalb over deswegen. Read one letter further or use the meaning before you commit.

Missing the article in the genitive. An -s on the following masculine or neuter noun (des Regens, des Hauses) signals the genitive, so des, not der or dem.

Dative and genitive not automated. You should be able to recall dem/der/dem and des/der/des without thinking, that is the drag that costs you time on every article gap when it is not solid yet.

Function words make up roughly a third of all onSET gaps, more than any category except pure vocabulary. Unlike vocabulary, the candidate list here is small and learnable, so there is no excuse for leaving these points on the table. Drill the tables above until the stub alone triggers the word.