Halloooooooo,
door 3 of our German Advent Calendar and if you’re now super excited because you think we’re about to talk about a few no goes in Germany, then I have one word for you:
clickbait
Because today is not about no goes. It’s about where the German not goes. Nicht. And actually, we won’t even look at it, we’ll just do an exercise.
Yeah, you can boooh all you want, but you can’t click away because then you’ll get on Santa’s shit-list. You have to do the workout or no Christmas for you!
Seriously though, it’s been a few lot of weeks month since the first part on the mini series on nicht.
It is definitely time for part 2, and I thought doing a little work out is a good reminder for you and also, I can potentially work your questions into the second part, which will come out. At some point.
So… I’ll give you a few sentences and you just have to negate them by putting in nicht into the position where it sounds most natural.
The fundamental rule for that is super simple:
Nicht goes before what it negates.
But that only works if you know the side sentence twist ;).
If you don’t know what that is… well… check out part one of the series on nicht.
In the workout, there are all kinds of challenges and levels of difficulties. So don’t worry, if you get some of them wrong. That’s kind of the purpose… to see what we need to focus on in part 2.
The only thing I didn’t include is the kein-stuff. I wanted to keep the focus on nicht.
But enough talk, let’s jump right in. The solutions are in the audio, but you can leave yours in the comments, if you want.
Viel Spaß :)
1) Ich trinke gerne Glühwein.
2) Ich habe gut geschlafen.
3) Ich mag Weihnachten.
4) Der Film hat mir gefallen.
5) Thomas will heute Abend tanzen gehen.
6) Maria hat sich gut um meine Pflanzen gekümmert. (look after my plants)
7) Einhörner existieren.
8) Das Bier ist kalt.
little break :), breathe in, breathe out, breeze through
9) Thomas kann sich daran erinnern.
10) Meine Kopfschmerzen gehen weg.
11) Thomas’ Füße riechen nach Käse.
12) Maria kocht gerne.
13) Thomas hat gesagt, dass ihm der Film gefallen hat. (negate both parts).
14) Die Suppe schmeckt mir.
15) Maria weiß, was sie will. (negate both parts)
16) Ich habe lange geschlafen.
That’s right, there are two correct choices in the last one. And they mean different things. 3, 2, 1… questions go!
Seriously, though… how’d you do? Was it easy or hard? How many did you get correct?
Let me know in the comments which ones you were having trouble with and what questions popped up and I’ll point you in the right direction.
Hope you enjoyed this, have a great day and bis morgen :)
Audio Speed
Dark Mode
Here goes..
1. Ich trinke nicht gerne Glühwein.
2. Ich habe nicht gut geschlafen.
3. Ich mag Weihachten nicht.
4. Der Film hat mir nicht gefallen.
5. Thomas will heute abend nicht tanzen gehen.
6. Maria hat sich nicht gut um meine Pflanzen gekümmert.
7. Einhörner existieren nicht.
8. Das bier ist nicht kalt.
9. Thomas kann sich daran nicht erinnern.
10. Meine Kopfschmerzen gehen nicht weg.
11. Thomas’ Füße riechen nicht nach Käse.
12. Maria kocht nicht gerne.
13. Thomas hat nicht gesagt, dass ihm der Film nicht gefallen hat.
14. Die Suppe schmeckt mir nicht.
15. Maria weiß nicht, was sie nicht will.
16. Ich habe nicht lange geschlafen.
Yay! This combined with part 1 was very helpful, thanks. I like the way of thinking of the side sentence construction as the natural way, that makes the easy rule “nicht comes before what it negates” very simple and applicable.
I’m really glad it works for you :)
Absolutely perfect!!! What’s your level of German, just for reference :)?
Ahhhh! Dankeschön. :) das hilft!
Camille713
in 11 – are you negating whether his feet smell like cheese – like you think they smell like roses or are you negating the verb – or that now sounds like a dumb question because wouldn’t I use kein to negate the cheese part only (if that is even possible)? this is hard…
what about the simpler sentence – his feet don’t smell – and what’s the “rule” or “tendency”
thomas’ fu:ss nicht riechen
thomas’ fu:ss riechen nicht
?
“Thomas Füße nicht riechen”
This sentence is not correct because the verb is not on position number 2.
The full phrase “nach X riechen” does consist of several words, yes, but it’s like one unit. So breaking that apart by “nicht” doesn’t really make much sense. That#s why it can’t come after the “nach”-part.
Does that help?
Sometimes grammar seems like poetry. Loved this advent item – and nicht Part I, especially the derivation of Klein. Big thrill. ( Should get out more perhaps.)
“grammar seems like poetry”… never thought I’d read that :)
About this:
You said:
As for Maria… there’s no difference in meaning to English.
– Maria doesn’t know what she wants. vs
– Maria knows what she doesn’t want.
ABER, es ist anders. Vielleicht:
Maria doesn’t know which man she wants to date.
Maria knows she doesn’t want Michael.
Hope that helps. :)
Camille713
What I meant to say was that German works exactly like English. So there is a difference between the sentences and it’s the same difference in both languages.
5) Thomas will heute Abend tanzen gehen.
This one confused me because I see three ways of negating this with different resulting meanings:
Thomas will nicht heute Abend tanzen gehen = Tonight, Thomas doesn’t want to go dancing. (i.e. this is how he feels right now rather than that he wants to go on a different night)
Thomas will heute Abend nicht tanzen gehen = Thomas wants to not go dancing tonight (he wants to avoid going dancing tonight)
Thomas will heute Abend tanzen gehen nicht [will] = Thomas doesn’t want to go dancing tonight (he has no wish to go dancing tonight, but if everyone else wants to…)
I note you say the first is also correct. What of the third?
Hmm.. I got #9 wrong, the rest was fine. Why is it “Thomas kann sich NICHT daran erinnern”?
Actually, I messed up there. Both versions are valid and which is the correct one depends on context.
I explained it in more detail in these two comments :
https://yourdailygerman.com/2017/12/03/position-nicht-exercise/#comment-42678
In my head, I had a “dass”-sentence in the example.
It sounds like you bugged the negotiations between SPD and CDU…
#16 good way for them to end a session (using both nicht versions at each other)
Hahahahaha….
– “Können wir vertagen? Ich habe nicht lange geschlafen, Frau Merkel.”
– “Na und?! Ich habe lange nicht geschlafen und ich heul auch nicht rum. “
Does one of these pairs sound more idiomatic than the other, or does it just depend on context? Ich hätte auf das zweite getippt, aber ich habe keine gute Erklärung dafür.
1. Ich trinke gerne Glühwein. Ich trinke nicht gerne Glühwein.
2. Ich trinke Glühwein gerne. Ich trinke Glühwein nicht gerne.
Related to #16 (love the sound effect btw), is there a difference between:
1. Ich habe lange nicht geschlafen.
2. Ich habe seit langem nicht geschlafen.
Great question.
In the first pair, having “gerne” before “Glühwein” is the more generic, general statement. When you say “Glühwein gern” then that sounds a bit like “Glühwein has been the focus of the discussion already and now you just position yourself.
Like… your friend just stated that they HATE Glühwein, then you’d use version 2, instead of 1. Because “Glühwein” is part of the scenery now, and not the payload (have you read my series on word order? There’s more about that in there)
As for your other question… no, not really. Those two sentences say roughly the same, namely that it’s been quite a while since you slept. Maybe “seit langem” sounds longer. And it sounds more official.
Number 3, like (above) Amerikanerin, I wan’t to put the NICHT before Xmas.
#14 I got “right” because it ‘sounded’ right, but I don’t know why it sounded right to put the NICHT at the end.
1. Die Suppe (nicht?) schmeckt mir. Nah…sounds like horrible German (and I learned that the verb needs to be in the second position)
2. Die Suppe schmeckt (nicht?) mir. Nope. still sounds wrong, therefore it must be:
3. Die supper schmeckt mir nicht. Yep, it sounds right.
But I don’t know WHY, except for the verb “rule”.
Well yes, version 1 is clearly wrong because the verb is not in position two. Version 2 is not wrong, but it sounds like you’re negating “mir” specifically. Like
– Die Suppe schmeckt nicht mir sondern Maria.
– It isn’t me, to whom the soup is tasty, it is Maria.
Three is the most natural, indeed. Let’s put the example into side sentence mode:
– …, dass die Suppe mir schmeckt.
The big rule is that “nicht” precedes what it negates. We want to negate the tasting. That’s why it comes before “schmeckt”
Now let’s do that with the Christmas example:
– … , dass ich Weihnachten mag.
We want to negate the liking. That’s why “nicht” comes before “mag” and (and this is the crucial point) BEHIND “Weihnachten”.
Hope that helps a bit. Let me know if you have questions.
I got all but #5 right, and when I applied your side-sentence strategy, it explained itself.
This strategy is brilliant, thank you Emanuel! I love it! My only concern is that for the most part I used what sounded right, rather than the side-sentence strategy. I will have go back over them and apply the new strategy regardless.
I think that ‚heute Abend‘ can be chronological organized hence ‚nicht‘ has to follow rather than precede
What do you mean by “chronological organized”?
In either case… you can out “nicht” before it, it’s just not the most natural position and it’s not the “normal” message.
But there’s no rule that says “nicht” has to come after “time” :)
Haha… don’t :)! If you got all correct but one just going by your gut that’s PERFECT. The side sentence strategy is not so much meant as a way to get things correct in daily life but as a way to explain WHY something is the way it is. So, you run into a negation you don’t understand, then the strategy will most likely clear it up.
Great to hear that you put it to use with 5) and it helped :).
So yeah… try it out on the others if you like, but your Sprachgefühl seems to be just fine.
I got most of them, but need some explan on 15.
I negated both parts, so I’m essentially saying:
“Maria doesn’t know what she doesn’t want”
Sounds confusing because that’s not something someone would usually say, but from a grammar perspective it’s all fine.
That’s why I put it in and said to negate both parts… to add a bit of confusion :)
Does that help?
One might not normally say this,. but “We don’t know what we don’t know” is a similar construction that does certainly find use in English, at least in scientific and intelligence fields. “Unknown unknowns” as Donald Rumsfeld famously said…
“unknown unknowns?!” Wow!!
Shannon, Exactly what I thought on #9 — that Thomas can remember other stuff but not whatever daran refered to. Would be interesting to hear how you thought to get #15 correct – not sure if Maria weiß, was sie nicht will means something other than Maria weiß nicht was sie will.
I just realized it when I replied to Shannon that I messed up with 9. Both versions are correct and yours actually makes more sense because of how the sentence is.
As for Maria… there’s no difference in meaning to English.
– Maria doesn’t know what she wants. vs
– Maria knows what she doesn’t want.
And then there’s of course
– Maria doesn’t know what she doesn’t want.
Maria can be quite complicated :)
Hallo Emanuel! Vielen Dank…
1) Ich trinke nicht gerne Glühwein.
2)Ich habe nicht gut geschlafen.
3)Ich mag nicht Weihnachten.
4)Der Film hat mir nicht gefallen.
5)Thomas will heute Abend nicht tanzen gehen.
6)Maria hat sich nicht gut um meine Pflanzen gekümmert.
7)Einhörner existieren nicht.
8)Das Bier ist nicht kalt.
9)Thomas kann sich daran nicht erinnern.
10)Meine Kopfschmerzen gehen nicht weg.
11)Thomas’ Füße riechen nicht nach Käse.
12)Maria kocht nicht gerne.
13) Thomas hat nicht gesagt, dass der Film ihm nicht gefallen hat.
14)Die Suppe schmeckt mir nicht.
15)Maria weiß nicht, was sie nicht will.
16)Ich habe nicht lange geschlafen. Ich habe lange nicht geschlafen.
Almost perfect!! I actually messed up number 9 myself, your solution is better but I tricked myself (see the comment discussion I had here with Shannon, I explain it there).
Your only real mistake is 3.
I missed two:. #3 (careless mistake) and #9 (my answer…Thomas kann sich daran nicht errinnern–thinking that he could remember other things, just not that particular one)
Great thinking. If the content of “daran” had been specified before, your sentence would be the most natural. Like…
– Wir haben gestern in der Bar mit einem Pferd geredet, aber Thomas kann sich daran nicht erinnern.
In the example in the work out, the “daran” is not specified yet, that’s why it sounds quite odd to have it as part of the non negated scenery. “daran erinnern, dass…” is the “payload” here and that gets negated.
Hope that helps
Wait… actually, I played a mind trick on myself. I don’t have a “dass” in the sentence so it’s actually not clear whether “daran” refers to something already established or not. Actually, as it is, it would make more sense that it IS a callback. So my solution is less optimal than yours :)
Could no. 5 also have more than one correct answer? Does “Thomas will nicht heute Abend tanzen gehen.” mean that it’s just tonight that Thomas doesn’t want to go dancing? (Perhaps he and Maria are doing an intensive course and he’d like a night off.)
Also, can “nicht” be placed to mean that it’s just dancing he doesn’t want to do? (Maybe Thomas would like to go carol singing tonight.)
????
I was tired. After sleep I see that “…. nicht tanzen gehen” does likely mean just not dancing. If he didn’t want to go out at all the dancing wouldn’t need to be mentioned, would it? Question now is whether ” …..tanzen nicht gehen”, which sounds odd to me, could mean happy to dance at home, but not out?
“Thomas will tanzen nicht gehen” sounds odd because it sounds like you’re negating the means of getting to the dancing. He does want to get to it, but he does not want to go but fly or drive instead :).
“tanzen gehen” is pretty much one block. Almost like a prefix verb, just think of “hingehen”. The difference is really just spelling, in a way.
Hope that helps.
Putting “nicht” in front of “heute abend” is perfectly fine, and yes, it does put a focus on “tonight”. Like…
– Tonight, Thomas doesn’t want to go dancing.
As for negating just “dancing”…. “tanzen gehen” is pretty much one unit. It feels like a prefix verb (movement plus added destination). That’s why you can’t really separate the “tanzen” away from it.
Oy, typo on “Weihnachten” – my spelling probably translates into something foul. Just wanna add that I changed the sentence structure of #3 to the “real” sentence structure according to your Position of “nicht” Part 1 and got (dass) ich Weihnachten mag, which morphs into (dass) ich Weihnachten NICHT mag and then, Ich mag Weihnachten NICHT, but that just FEELS wrong – “Ich mag NICHT Weihnacht”, FEELS more intuitive. I like not xmas. What do I not like? Xmas. But yet, the Einhorn-sentence FELT like NICHT went at the end, when in fact, I can’t wrangle that sentence into the Position of “nicht” Part 1 form.
Haha… it took me like a decade to finally ingrain the spelling of “Weihnachten” in my head. It helped me to remember that it comes from the verb “weihen” but that’s not much help for a non native speaker.
Great work on explaining #3!!
Also, great argument about using a question BUT… in the question, too, the nicht would be at the end.
– [Was] mag ich nicht?
– [Weihnachten] mag ich nicht.
Moving “Weihnachten” further right is just shuffling boxes around but doesn’t change the position of “nicht”.
Does that help?
Hmmm…
#3 Ich mag NICHT Weinachten.
#9Thomas kann sich daran NICHT erinnern.
#15 Maria weiß NICHT was sie will.
Why are those wrong? Got the “Maria weiß NICHT”-part correct, but not in the side-sentence. Isn’t there a difference between Maria not knowing waht she wants and Maria knowing what she doesn’t want?
Odd that I got #7 correct (loved the soundtrack to that one!) but didn’t get #3. HELP?
As for 9, I realized that I messed up. Your version is completely valid, too. For more details check out these comments:
https://yourdailygerman.com/2017/12/03/position-nicht-exercise/#comment-42678
As for #15… yes, there is a difference :). You can negate both parts or just one, it’s always a different message.