In Chapter
12 - negation we have seen that in German there
are two different ways of negation, the one with nicht
and the one with kein.
This system doesn't change with the change in the tenses.
|
Examples |
|
negation with nicht |
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|
Er arbeitet
jeden Tag. =
He works every day. |
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|
Er arbeitet
nicht
jeden Tag. =
He does not work every day. |
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Er
arbeitete
nicht jeden
Tag. = He did not work every day. |
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Er hat
nicht
jeden Tag gearbeitet.
= He has not
worked every day. |
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Er hatte
nicht jeden
Tag gearbeitet.
= He had not worked
every day. |
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|
negation with kein |
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Ich sehe
ein
Haus. = I
see a house. |
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Ich sehe
kein
Haus. = I don't see
a house. |
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Ich sah
kein
Haus. = I
did not see a house. |
|
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Ich habe
kein
Haus gesehen.
= I haven't seen a house. |
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|
Ich
hatte kein
Haus gesehen.
= I had not seen a house |
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As you see, the position
of the negation changes depending on the tense. Is there
a compound tense (present perfect or past perfect) then
the negated object is moved after the modal verb and
before the perfect participle.
This principle is also used
when using other modal verbs:
|
Examples |
|
Er muss
viel arbeiten. =
He has to work a lot. |
|
|
Er muss
nicht
viel arbeiten.
= He does
not have to work a lot. |
|
|
The question now is how is the
word order with two objects in the sentence, the direct
object as well as the indirect object. As said before
the word order for compound tenses is
(subject) conjugated verb
+ indirect object +
direct object +
perfect participle (if
the none or only one object is substituted with a personal
pronoun)
(subject) conjugated verb
+ direct object
+ indirect object +
perfect participle
(if both objects are substituted
with personal pronouns)
|
Examples |
|
Sie hatte ihm
das
Auto geschenkt. =
She had given the car to him. |
|
|
Er
hat es
ihr
gesagt.
= He has told
her. |
|
|
The word order for negated phrases
is the same as above, only the nicht
is put before the perfect participle.
|
Examples |
|
Ich habe
es
ihm
nicht
gesagt.
= I have not told
him. |
|
|
Sie hatte
ihm das
Auto nicht geschenkt.
= She had not given him the car. |
|
|
If we now make thing even
a bit more complicated and use an attribut (a more detailed
description) as above the word order is as follows:
(subject) conjugated verb +
indirect object +
direct object + (nicht)
+ attribute
+ perfect participle (if
none or only one object is substituted by personal pronouns)
(subject) conjugated verb +
direct object + indirect
object + (nicht)
+ attribute
+ perfect participle
(if both the objects are substituted by personal
pronouns)
|
Examples |
|
Ich habe
es
ihm
(nicht)
gleich gesagt.
= I have (not) told
him right away. |
|
|
Sie hatte
ihm das
Auto (nicht)
erneut
geschenkt.
= She had (not) given him the car anew. |
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