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Exercise: Translate "It is never warm in the winter." into German

My ans : Es ist warm nie im Winter

Correct answer : Es ist nie warm im Winter.

Is my answer acceptable, if not, what is the mistake?

My answer was motivated by an analogy to the idea from here (about usage of nein/nicht/kein):

  • to negate an adjective, we write the “nicht” before it

  • we put “nicht” after the verb when negating in German

  • Die Kinder sind nicht klein. (negating an adjective)
  • Ich spiele nicht, sondern lerne für den Test. (negating a verb)
Shegit Brahm
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tryst with freedom
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  • You weren't too specific about which information in the Study German Online page you were talking about. It does say there though that "If you want to negate an adjective, we write the “nicht” before it." The same applies to nie – RDBury Nov 10 '21 at 01:27
  • I thought you'd treat the adverb same as verb. My bad. – tryst with freedom Nov 10 '21 at 08:09

2 Answers2

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Nie is an adverb. When an adverb modifies an adjective, in German, it is placed in front of that adjective:

Es ist [       ] warm.
Es ist jetzt / oft / immer / nie / sehr warm.

With the exeption of placing the adverb at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis, you must move the adjective phrase around in the sentence as a whole:

Es ist im Winter nie warm.
Es ist nie warm im Winter.
Im Winter ist es nie warm.

If you want to emphasize either the adverb or the adjective, you put either of them at the beginning of the sentence:

Nie ist es warm im Winter.
Nie ist es im Winter warm.
Warm ist es im Winter nie.
Warm ist es nie im Winter.

It feels wrong to me to place both adverb and adjective at the beginning of the sentence:

Nie warm ist es im Winter.

And you cannot split the adjective phrase inside the sentence. This example from @planetmaker is grammatically wrong:

Es ist nie im Winter warm.

You might find such deviations from correct grammar in poetry, but not in everyday speech or writing.

In a comment , Shegit Brahm complains that they don't understand why Es ist nie einfach nur billig is a valid sentence but Es ist nie im Winter warm isn't.

That is because the adverb nie modifies the whole adjective phrase einfach nur billig. Think of sentences as consisting of, among other parts, of adverbial phrases that you can move around as a whole:

Es ist [ adverbial phrase                ] [ adverbial phrase              ]
Es ist [ [adverb] + [adjective phrase  ] ] [ [preposition] + [noun phrase] ]
Es ist [  nie     + [warm              ] ] [  in           + [dem Winter]  ]
Es ist [  nie     + [einfach nur billig] ] [  im Winter                    ]

Now you can move the adverbial phrases around, as long as they stay in their place behind the verb:

Es ist [nie warm] [im Winter] [in Schweden].
Es ist [in Schweden] [nie warm] [im Winter].
Es ist [im Winter] [in Schweden] [nie warm].
usw.

Es ist [nie einfach nur billig] [im Winter] ...
Es ist ... [im Winter] [nie einfach nur billig].
usw.

Prespositions (in), articles (dem), and similar words cannot be put in first place in a sentence, you can only emphasize them through stress (in spoken language) or markup (in written language, e.g. italics), while adverb and adjective phrase can only be put in first place separately:

Im Winter ist es nie warm.
Nie ist es warm im Winter.
Warm ist es nie im Winter.
Im ist es nie warm Winter. (this is completely wrong)
Es ist im Winter nie warm. (emphasis through markup)
Nie warm ist es im Winter. (this is only half wrong, you can find it in lyrical usage, but not in spoken language)

@PaulFrost

The particle auch isn't part of the adverbial phrase.

Es ist [auch  + [im Winter       ]] [    schön       ]
Es ist [part. + [adverbial phrase]] [adverbial phrase]
Es ist [auch  + [im Winter       ]] [nie schön       ]
Es ist [auch  + [nie schön       ]] [im Winter       ]
Es ist [auch  + [    schön       ]] [im Winter       ]

The sentence Es ist nie im Winter warm does not sound exceptionally nice, but in spoken language it can be used with an emphasis on nie.

As I explained in my comment, language is very flexible and speakers can do almost anything. Still, most native speakers will find certain word orders more conventional and meaningful and consider others irritating or "wrong". Es ist nie im Winter warm feels wrong to me, and I am quite sure I have never heard such a construction outside of discussions such as these.

Guest
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Sniggering Cat
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  • I'm not that rule guy, so for me it seems to have a logic loop hole that "Nie ist es warm im Winter" is fine while "es ist nie im Winter warm" is wrong. For me "Nie ist es im Winter warm" is a similiar split as "im Winter" is put inside the adjective phrase. – Shegit Brahm Nov 10 '21 at 07:56
  • @ShegitBrahm Language isn't maths. Language doesn't have rules that are logical and consistent, it is a system of conventions that rise out of the usage of its speakers. In maths, what you do is either right or wrong. In language, things feel more or less conventional. Where maths is rigid, language is flexible and can be used creatively. – Sniggering Cat Nov 10 '21 at 08:31
  • @ShegitBrahm That said, the two "rules" or conventions at work here are that the adverb comes in front of the adjective that it modifies and that every part of a sentence can be placed at the front of the sentence for emphasis. The second rule has some exceptions, e.g. you cannot place a verb at the beginning of a sentence for emphasis, because that will turn the sentence into a question ("Ist es nie warm im Winter?"). You also cannot place an article or preposition in first place alone ("Im es ist nie warm Winter."), but have to move the whole noun phrase ("Im Winter ist es ..."). – Sniggering Cat Nov 10 '21 at 08:34
  • @ShegitBrahm When it comes to "nie warm" you have to decide what you want to emphasize: that it is never warm or that it is never warm. That makes sense, once you think about it. Because what would it mean if you emphasized both? Warm and never are two distinct concepts, and you can put the focus on either of them, but not on both at the same time. That's the nature of focus, that it can only lie on one concept at one time. – Sniggering Cat Nov 10 '21 at 08:35
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    Thanks for your explanation. I'm not sure if there is additional content compared to written answer. (=a hint to include if there is more). I just felt in my head, the "es ist nie im Winter warm" a valid sentence is to emphazise that whatever comes after nie - it never happens. Like "Es ist nie einfach nur billig." Maybe that works only in spoken language. – Shegit Brahm Nov 10 '21 at 09:41
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    I disagree to "And you cannot split the adjective phrase inside the sentence." The sentence Es ist nie im Winter warm does not sound exceptionally nice, but in spoken language it can be used with an emphasis on nie. And what about Es ist auch im Winter schön? which has the same grammtical structure? – Paul Frost Nov 10 '21 at 10:28
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    Nice answer, but I don't share your objections to "Es ist nie im Winter warm" – Lykanion Nov 10 '21 at 13:23
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Your answer is not proper word order. There are two ways with slightly different emphasis to answer correctly.

The basic sentence is

Es ist nie warm

and the 'nie warm' (never warm) needs to be in this order, their order cannot be reversed; yet they can be separated

And now you can place the 'im Winter' in several places.

Es ist im Winter nie warm.

Es ist nie im Winter warm.

The word order changes when you place it as first element as the verb has to go 2nd:

Im Winter ist es nie warm.

Nie ist es im Winter warm.

planetmaker
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    The emphasis is something like »Es ist im Winter nie warm, sondern meistens kalt.«. »Es ist nie im Winter warm, sondern nur im Frühling oder Sommer.« – Raketenolli Nov 09 '21 at 22:27
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    It might be noted here that one way nicht differs from nie is that you can't start a sentence with nicht. So while Nie ist es im Winter warm is correct, Nicht ist es im Winter warm is not. – RDBury Nov 10 '21 at 01:34
  • When you place Im winter/ Nie first, how do you know where Nie / im winter will be in later of the sentence – tryst with freedom Dec 11 '21 at 13:19