The negation “nicht” is positioned depending on the sentence elements. Let me give you a few rules for that today:

Nicht always follows:

- the conjugated verb

(e.g. Paula raucht nicht. Paula doesn’t smoke.)

- specific adverbs of time

(e.g. Paula arbeitet heute nicht. Paula is not working today.)

Nicht precedes most other elements:

- adjectives

(e.g. Paula ist nicht lustig. Paula isn’t funny.)

- most other adverbs

(e.g. Paula singt nicht gut. Paula doesn’t sing well.)

- infinitives

(e.g. Paula geht nicht schwimmen. Paula is not going swimming.)

… and put the sentences in the correct order…

1. du - vielleicht - kannst - kommen - morgen?

2. gehen - wir - Hause - nach - schnell.

3. gestern - dich - angerufen - habe - ich.

4. Hund - mein - schwarzer - Benno - heißt.

5. Kaffee - Sie - trinken - wie - Ihren?

…?

Here are some more grammar links to previous posts.

Noun Genders And How You Recognize Them

Sentence Structure Statement 2

Sentence Structure Questions 2

Sentence Structure Middle Of The Clause

Regular And Irregular Verbs

Of course that’s not all. Type “grammar” into the search tool and you’ll find a lot more posts that deal with German grammar - e.g. posts in which I explain the different grammatical terms.

There are also many topics that I haven’t written posts about yet, so stay tuned - there’s a loooot more to come :)

#grammar

We’ve already learned about yes/no questions. Let’s now focus on the specific questions, which ask for a longer reply.

Question word - conjugated verb - (subject) - (object)

Example without a subject:

Wer möchte einen Drink? Who would like a drink?

(QW) (V)     -   (O)   - ?

Example without an object:

Wo wohnst du? Where do you live?

(QW) (V)  (S) ?