I am trying to understand when small words & interjections at the start of a sentence get ignored with regard to the "verb comes second" rule.
In this sentence it gets ignored. You say:
"Hey, du siehst ja nicht gerade sehr fröhlich aus!"
...instead of
"Hey, siehst du ja nicht gerade sehr fröhlich aus!"
It works the same for:
"Nun, ich hatte vor einer Feuerwehrausfahrt geparkt."
But in this sentence the verb DOES come second:
"Na ja, kann man nichts machen."
…instead of
“Na ja, man kann nichts machen.”
What is the difference? Or can it go either way? I understand how it works differently with coordinate vs subcordinate conjunctions, but these "little words" aren't conjunctions.
A somewhat related situation happens in this sentence:
"Spätestens am Flughafen würdest du dann aber doch geschnappt."
Here, following the TMP rule, I would've tried to put "am Flughafen" later in the sentence, perhaps:
"Spätestens würdest du dann aber doch am Flughafen geschnappt."
But I guess it's treating "Spätestens am Flughafen" as one phrase, so that it all comes before the verb.
Thanks.