Weil vs. Denn
Learn the differences between the German conjunctions 'weil' and 'denn'. They both mean 'because', but require different sentence structures.

The German conjunctions "denn" and "weil" do not have a difference in meaning. If you can use "denn" in a sentence, you could have expressed the very same sentence using "weil" - and vice versa. However, you cannot just swap them out for one another.
When learning German, one of the most common questions learners ask is about the difference between "weil" and "denn". While there is not difference in meaning between "weil" & "denn", they are not interchangable: You cannot simply take a sentence that uses "weil" and replace "weil" with "denn".
In this guide, we'll explore the key differences between these two conjunctions.
Weil & Denn Explained
Weil
The reason for this is that weil & denn "dock onto" different sentence structures. "Weil" requires a subordinate clause, whereas "denn" requires a main clause. Let's have a look at sentence using weil:
What comes after "weil" cannot stand on its own. It's a subordinate clause. "Ich Durst habe" is not be a correct sentence in German.
Denn
"Denn", however, works differently to "weil". It introduces a main clause. So the very same sentence with "denn" has a slightly different word order:
"Ich habe Durst" can stand on it's own: it's a main clause.
And this is the reason why you cannot just swap "weil" & "denn" out however you please.
Denn cannot stand at the beginning of a sentence
Another difference is that "denn" can never stand at the beginning of a sentence. You cannot introduce a sentence with "denn".
So you could say:
But you could not say:
Examples with weil & denn
Weil
Here are two more basic dialogues using "weil":




Denn
And here are two example dialogues using "denn":



