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From Ernteeinbußen wegen Hitze: Landwirtschaftsminister will Bauern helfen, tagesschau.de, 18 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
'That will only happen once reliable data is available,' Rainer said on the joint morning programme of ARD and ZDF.
Word for word: 'That goes but only then, when reliable data lie-before,' said Rainer in the joint morning-magazine of ARD and ZDF.
A speaker is quoted in the news: something should be done only once solid data exist. The subjunctive signals that these are reported, not necessarily endorsed, words.
The quoted clause uses the present subjunctive one (gehe) to report speech indirectly. The wenn-clause is verb-final (vorliegen at the end). The reporting clause sagte Rainer follows the quote, so the finite verb still stands in second position of the whole sentence.
Rules at work(8)
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gehe
Reported speech in journalism uses Konjunktiv I to mark the statement as the speaker's words.
Reported speech in journalism and formal writing. It is built from the infinitive stem, and where its form would be identical to the ordinary present, Konjunktiv II is used instead to keep the reporting visible.
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wenn belastbare Daten vorliegen
After wenn the finite verb moves to the end of the clause.
In a subordinate clause the finite verb stands last. Where the clause also holds a participle or an infinitive, the finite verb goes after them, so the order at the end is participle then auxiliary.
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wenn
wenn introduces the conditional-temporal clause and triggers verb-final order.
Weil, dass, wenn, als, ob, obwohl, damit, nachdem, bevor and the rest introduce a subordinate clause and send its finite verb to the very end.
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im gemeinsamen Morgenmagazin
in takes the dative here because it describes location, not movement.
An, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor and zwischen take the accusative when the phrase answers where to, and the dative when it answers where. The distinction is movement across a boundary against position, not motion against stillness.
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gemeinsamen
After the definite article contained in 'im', the adjective takes the weak -en ending.
After a definite article the adjective ending is e in the five nominative and accusative singular slots and en everywhere else, because the article has already shown the case and gender.
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belastbare Daten
With no determiner before the plural noun, the adjective carries the strong ending -e.
With no article in front of it the adjective has to carry the case marking itself, so it takes the endings the definite article would have had, with the exception of the masculine and neuter genitive singular.
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Morgenmagazin
Two nouns are joined without a space to form one neuter compound.
German builds long nouns by joining shorter ones. The last part carries the gender and the plural, and everything before it modifies what follows, so a compound is read from the right.
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sagte
Written reporting prefers the simple past over the perfect.
The simple past is the written narrative past. In speech it survives mainly in sein, haben and the modals, where hatte and war are far commoner than the perfect forms.
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Words(17)
- das
that, what
pronounA1demonstrative
Before a comma, das is usually a pronoun introducing a relative clause, not the article.
- gehen
to go, to walk
verbA1gehen, ging, ist gegangenmit seinstrong
With a bare infinitive it means to go somewhere to do that thing: 'gehen joggen' = go jogging.
- erst
only, not until, first
adverbA2temporal
erst dann = 'only then'; do not confuse with 'erste' (first).
- dann
then, in that case
adverbA1temporal
- wenn
if, when(ever)
conjunctionA2subordinating
triggers verb-final word order; conditional 'if' here
- belastbar
robust, reliable, able to withstand stress
adjectiveC1belastbarer, am belastbarsten
Of data or evidence: able to bear scrutiny; of people: stress-resistant.
- die Daten
data, figures
nounA2pl. Datengen. des Datumsstrong declension
Almost always used in the plural; the singular 'Datum' means a calendar date.
- vorliegen
to be available (to somebody), to have been submitted (to somebody), to be on the table
verbB2vorliegen, lag vor, hat vorgelegenmit habenseparablestronggoverns dative
The person who has the document goes in the dative: 'Dem Ausschuss liegt der Bericht vor.' Very frequent in news meaning 'a document has been obtained/is circulating'.
- sagen
to say, to tell
verbA1sagen, sagte, hat gesagtmit habenweak
- der Rainer
Rainer (male first name)
nounA1pl. Rainersgen. Rainersinvariable declension
- in
in, into
prepositionA1governs accusative or dative
Dative for location, accusative for direction.
- gemeinsam
joint, common, shared
adjectiveA2gemeinsamer, am gemeinsamen/gemeinsamsten
- das Morgenmagazin
morning magazine programme
nounB2pl. Morgenmagazinegen. des Morgenmagazinsstrong declension
- von
from, of, by
prepositionA1governs dative
Used here to mark authorship, like 'by' in English credits.
- die ARD
ARD (German public broadcaster consortium)
nounB1pl. —gen. der ARDinvariable declension
- und
and
conjunctionA1coordinating
- das ZDF
ZDF (Second German Television)
nounB1pl. —gen. des ZDFinvariable declension