> "Man bites dog" and "dog bits man" have two different meanings based on word order. In German, both orders are possible and it still has the same meaning.
That's not correct. Both orders are possible but they don't have the same meaning. The word order in this example has the same effect in German as it has in English.
English tends to rely mostly on word order to indicate the grammatical function of a word or phrase, while German uses inflections. The German endings, such as those indicating the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases in three different genders, allow for some greater flexibility in clause construction. Hence "Der Hund beißt den Mann" and "Den Mann beißt der Hund" both mean "The dog bites the man" (as opposed to "The man bites the dog"). Nevertheless, German word order is extremely important, even when it is not vital to meaning, and its correctness plays a major role in how a foreigner's command of the language is evaluated.
At the same time, word order is an infinitely complex aspect of language, never wholly mastered by non-native speakers. Very few rules cover all possibilities, and context often trumps other considerations. When Robert Frost writes, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," it's poetic; if someone with a foreign accent says the same thing in conversation, it sounds like Yoda.
Yes, but I am not sure that "Mann beisst Hund" is even a sentence. Sounds like a Newspaper slogan. I don't think a German teacher would let this slip in an essay except if it is done on purpose for style reasons.
Der Mann beisst den Hund.
Den Hund beisst der Mann.
The dog bites the man:
Der Hund beisst den Mann.
Den Mann beisst der Hund.
This is an easy example because inflections are not really important here. Nouns can change and indicate things like ownership.
Chair/ House - Stuhl / Haus for example.
Der Stuhl des Hauses. Haus changes to Hauses, indicating an ownership.
That's not correct. Both orders are possible but they don't have the same meaning. The word order in this example has the same effect in German as it has in English.