Declarative sentences and word order

Declarative sentences in both English and German consist of a subject and a pred-icate. In German, the subject is in the nominative case, and the verb in the predi-cate is conjugated appropriately for the subject and in a specific tense:

subject + verb + predicate

Karl + singt + gut.

Karl sings well.

In the example sentence above, the subject is Karl and the verb singt is conjugated in the present tense for the third person singular subject. This basic structure is used in great abundance in the language and can be modified in a variety of ways. Nonetheless, its simple formula is subject plus predicate. If one of those elements is missing, you don’t have a sentence.

Let’s look at a series of sentences composed in this way. Take note of the sub-jects, the variety of verb types in the predicate, and the various tenses that can be used in declarative sentences. Many sentences are composed of a present perfect tense verb and the auxiliary haben:

Karin hat in Leipzig gewohnt. Karin lived in Leipzig.
Many are composed of a present perfect tense verb and the auxiliary sein:

Sie sind nach Kanada ausgewandert. They emigrated to Canada.

Many appear in the future tense with the auxiliary werden:

Die Kinder werden im Garten spielen. The children will play in the garden.

Others can be a combination of a modal auxiliary and an infinitive:

Niemand kann ihn verstehen.   No one can understand him.

And still others can be written in the passive voice:
Deutsch wird hier gesprochen. German is spoken here.
In other words, a declarative sentence can take many forms.


Negation

Declarative sentences do not always make positive statements. They can be made negative by add-ing a negative word to the sentence or by changing a positive subject to a negative subject.
The most common way to negate a sentence is by the addition of the adverb nicht (not):
Karl singt gut.                   Karl sings well.
Karl singt nicht gut.         Karl doesn’t sing well.
German usually places nicht in front of the element that is negated. However, if that element is the verb itself, nicht follows the conjugated form or stands between the auxiliary and the cor-responding infinitive or participle. Nicht also follows an adverb or adverbial phrase that describes time or place or an object that is in the accusative case:
Es geht nicht.                                                    That won’t work.
Sie sind nicht zu Hause gewesen.                 They weren’t at home.
Er konnte gestern nacht nicht schlafen.      He couldn’t sleep last night.
Sie kennt den Mann nicht.                            She doesn’t know the man.

Nicht precedes a prepositional phrase or an adverbial that describes the manner in which something was done:
subject + verb + nicht + prepositional phrase
Sie + fahren + nicht 1 nach Hause.
They’re not driving home.
English often requires the auxiliary do/does when negating. This does not occur in German:

Sie warten nicht auf Katrin.        They don't wait for Katrin
Er versteht nicht.                           He doesn’t understand.
Onkel Fritz kommt nicht heute. Uncle Fritz isn’t coming today.

When negating a noun, kein (no, not any) is used:

kein + noun
keine + Bücher
no/not any books
Ich habe kein Geld.                     I don’t have any money.

Jack kennt keine Deutschen.   Jack doesn’t know any Germans.

Es dauert keine fünf Minuten. It won’t last more than five minutes.

Niemand, nichts, and niemals

The negative pronouns niemand (no one, nobody) and nichts (nothing) are high-frequency words and are commonly used to negate a sentence. The same is true of the adverb nie or niemals (never). Niemand and nichts can act as subjects or objects. Compare their use in the following examples:

Niemand besucht sie.                           No one is visiting them.
Sie versteht niemanden.                      She doesn’t understand anybody.
Nichts interessiert ihn.                        Nothing interests him.
Ich habe nichts für die Kinder.          I have nothing for the children.

Nie / niemals is used adverbially:
Er geht nie (niemals) ins Kino. He never goes to the movies.
Just like jemand, niemand can have a declensional ending in the accusative and dative cases. That ending, however, is optional:

Nominative       jemand niemand
Accusative         jemand or jemanden niemand or niemanden
Dative                 jemand or jemandem niemand or niemandem

Word order

The sentences you have encountered so far all began with the subject of the sentence. But German sentences can begin with other elements as well. When this occurs, the verb in the sentence will precede the subject. Consider the following sentences. Notice that the English sentences cannot always follow the German word order, particularly when the German sentence begins with a direct object:

Adverb                Gestern war er in der Stadt.                 Yesterday he was in the city.    
Direct object      Das verstehe ich nicht.                          I don’t understand that.
Clause                 Als ich in Berlin war, besuchte            When I was in Berlin, I visited
                             ich meinen Onkel.                                  my uncle.

In the previous examples, the various German sentences began with an adverb (Gestern), a direct object (Das), and a clause (Als ich in Berlin war). And in each case the subject was preceded by the verb:

non-subject element + verb + subject inverted subject and verb

It is important to remember that German sentences that begin with some element other than the subject cannot always be translated word for word into English. For example:

Den Mann beißt der Hund.
Those words translate as the man bites the dog, but the German sentence begins with the direct object and must, therefore, be translated into English as the dog bites the man.