"Either he has the things or he does not."

Translation: Entweder hat er die Dinge oder er hat sie nicht.

[marziotta]

I said "Entweder hat er die Dinge oder hat er sie nicht"

Since "Entweder" was replacing the subject, I thought in this situation also "oder" would have had this function. And I was wrong.

O.K., oder never substitute the subject, it was a bad idea! :D

[wataya]

No idea what you're talking about ;-) 'Entweder' doesn't substitute the subject (or anything else). The subject is 'er'.

[marziotta]

Entweder substitutes the subject position-wise. Oder cannot.

[wataya]

ok, I see what you mean. (Strange concept: 'the subject's position' ;-))

[marziotta]

SVO, is the structure of the sentence in English affirmative sentences, but you can put some complements before the subject.

German is Subject-Verb conjugated-all the rest-Verb not conjugated, and pretty often something can replace the subject. But then the subjects want to stay next to the verb anyway and goes in third position. If you learn DAF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) you need to think at positions or you get crazy. ;)

[wataya]

I didn't know you're into Voodoo ;-)

[marziotta]

Come to the dark side of learning languages! We have cookies!

[wataya]

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate ;-)