A method for operating a transformerless inverter includes operating first and second half-bridges of the inverter using a unipolar clocking method as a first clocking method, determining a value of a grid-frequency stray current at the DC terminals of the inverter during the unipolar clocking method, and when a limit value is exceeded by the stray current value, operating the first and second half-bridges of the inverter using a stray-current-reducing clocking method as a second clocking method in which the first half-bridge provides an AC voltage at the first AC output, wherein an amplitude of the AC voltage is less than 50% of the amplitude of a voltage amplitude of the grid, and the second half-bridge provides a difference voltage between the grid voltage and the voltage provided by the first half-bridge at the first AC output.