Apr 18, 2017 - 05:28 AM
Hi, first of all note how this sentence doesn't contradict the basic formula: it doesn't have any infinitive or past participle, just a subject "Er", a verb "kennt", a place complement "in Berlin" and a Direct Object "fast alle Bahnhöfe".
Secondly, as MichelSelva pointed out, it is true that the Direct Object could go before the place complement, like this: Er kennt fast alle Bahnhöfe in Berlin, even though here the first order is a bit more natural.
The truth is that the order of German sentences is quite complex and it can vary a lot depending on the speaker and the message they want to convey, for example here we could also say: In Berlin kennt er fast alle Bahnhöfe.
That's why at Fluenz we chose to teach only one basic order first -the simplest one, which is also the most neutral- and we tried to use the most natural order whenever possible in the drills.
Then we expanded on the different options progressively -mostly in levels 4 and 5, where we also spoke about the different kinds of direct and indirect objects.
So don't worry if you're still a bit confused sometimes with word order, that's something that comes with practice, so at first the idea is to get used to how people speak and try to imitate them. And even if you don't use the exact right order, people will understand you :)