The difference between “wegen” and “deswegen”
When studying German, students often ask themselves what the difference between “wegen” and “deswegen” is. This article will explain to you all you need to know so you can use both words correctly in the future.
“Wegen” and “deswegen”
Though both words follow a different sentence structure, which we will discuss in the following, one uses both to give a reason in German. The meaning of “wegen” is “because of,” and the translation for “deswegen” is “because of this.” As you can already easily see, there is also a slight difference between the two words in English.
When to use “wegen”
If you wish to use “wegen” in German, you must consider that a noun should follow it. We would do the same with the English “because of,” as it cannot stand alone in a sentence because it is missing an object. Also, the noun that follows the causal preposition “wegen” always needs to be in the Genitive case. Still, in modern German, many speakers mix it up and use the Dative case, which is technically incorrect.
Example:
Wegen des schlechten Wetters konnte ich nicht schwimmen gehen. / Ich konnte nicht schwimmen gehen wegen des schlechten Wetters.
Because of the bad weather, I couldn’t go swimming.
When to use “deswegen”
As discussed above, there needs to be an object after “wegen”. Now, there might be the case that you previously communicated why something happened, and now you do not want to repeat it. Therefore, you can use “because of this” (this = what you already mentioned before). In German, we use the causal conjunction adverb “deswegen” to do so. Now, the “des” gives you the information that the noun which follows “wegen” has to be in the Genitiv case and that it replaces the object “des schlechten Wetters” which we had to add in “wegen”. This means that “deswegen” means the same as “wegen des + noun.”
Besides, you should be aware that the sentence which follows this conjunction follows the scheme: “deswegen” + Verb + subject…
Example:
Das Wetter war schlecht, deswegen konnte ich nicht schwimmen gehen.
The weather was terrible because of this; I couldn’t go swimming.
Giving reason with “wegen” and “deswegen”
After reading this article, it should be clear when to use which one. You can always ask yourself, did I already speak about the reason? If so, then you can most likely use “deswegen”. This way, you will not have to repeat the reason repeatedly. If not, “wegen” might be the perfect choice for you.
To know more about giving reasons, you should check out my article “Denn, da, and weil – giving a reason in German“.
Bis bald!
Steffie
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