Word order of adverbials (time, manner, place) and where "nicht" goes

You already know that the conjugated verb takes second position in a German statement, and that nicht usually sits near the end of a simple sentence to negate the whole thing. Both of those rules leave a gap once a sentence has more than one adverbial in it — a time word, a way of doing something, and a place, all at once. This lesson fills that gap: the order those adverbials take among themselves, and exactly where nicht lands among them.

Quick shortcut for the neutral order: time, then manner, then place — Ich fahre heute mit dem Bus nach Berlin. And nicht, negating the whole sentence, slots in right after the time and before manner and place: Ich fahre heute nicht mit dem Bus nach Berlin.

The order of adverbials: time, manner, place

When a sentence stacks more than one adverbial — answering when, how, and where — the neutral, everyday order in German is time, then manner, then place. This is a useful contrast with English, which doesn't have one single fixed order here — the same idea could be phrased I'm going to Berlin by bus today (place, then manner, then time) or several other ways:

• Ich fahre heute mit dem Bus nach Berlin. (I'm going to Berlin by bus today.)
• Sie fliegt morgen schnell nach Rom. (She's flying to Rome quickly tomorrow.)
• Wir gehen um sieben zu Fuß ins Kino. (We're walking to the cinema at seven.)

You won't always have all three in one sentence — most sentences only have one or two — but whenever more than one shows up together, this is the order to reach for by default. Other orders aren't ungrammatical — they show up under contrastive focus or for style — but this is the one to lead with.

Where nicht fits: after time, before manner and place

The earlier lesson on negation left this open on purpose: once a place phrase joins the sentence, nicht doesn't neutrally sit at the very end after it — it sits before it. For the common case of negating the whole sentence, the neutral order is: nicht comes after a time expression, but before manner and place.

• Ich gehe heute nicht ins Kino. (I'm not going to the cinema today.) — the neutral way to say it, rather than Ich gehe heute ins Kino nicht.
• Er kommt morgen nicht mit dem Auto. (He's not coming by car tomorrow.)
• Wir fahren heute nicht mit dem Bus nach Berlin. (We're not going to Berlin by bus today.) — time, then nicht, then manner, then place, all in one sentence.

Think of nicht as taking the same slot a manner adverbial would if there were no time expression, and stepping in right after time when there is one. In this neutral, whole-sentence-negation reading, it lands before the manner and place information, not tucked away at the very end.

This neutral placement isn't the only option, though — remember from the earlier lesson that nicht can also move directly in front of just the one word it's contrasting. When a sondern clause makes that narrower contrast explicit, nicht moves directly in front of the contrasted word instead of following the neutral pattern above:

• Ich rufe dich nicht heute an, sondern morgen. (I'm not calling you today, but tomorrow.) — here heute itself is what's being denied, so nicht moves right in front of it.

For everyday sentences without that kind of explicit contrast, though, the neutral order above — time, then nicht, then manner and place — is the one to reach for.

Nicht still comes before separable prefixes and infinitives too

This combines directly with what you already know: nicht also comes right before a separable prefix or an infinitive, and that still holds once adverbials are added — the adverbials come first, then nicht, then the prefix or infinitive:

• Ich rufe dich heute nicht an. (I'm not calling you today.) — heute, then nicht, then the prefix an.
• Ich kann heute nicht mitkommen. (I can't come along today.) — heute, then nicht, then the infinitive.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Ich nicht komme heute. → ✅ Ich komme heute nicht. (nicht doesn't sit right after the verb the way English "not" does — it moves later in the clause)
• Ich gehe heute ins Kino nicht isn't wrong, but it's the marked, contrastive order — the neutral default is ✅ Ich gehe heute nicht ins Kino. (nicht before the place phrase, not after it)
• Ich fahre mit dem Bus heute nach Berlin isn't wrong either, but the neutral order is ✅ Ich fahre heute mit dem Bus nach Berlin. (time before manner)
• Wir gehen ins Kino heute is likewise marked — the neutral order is ✅ Wir gehen heute ins Kino. (time before place)

Quick check

Put the words in the right order:

1. (nach Berlin / heute / ich / fahre) — no nicht
2. (ins Kino / heute / nicht / gehe / ich)
3. (mit dem Auto / morgen / er / kommt / nicht)
4. (dich / an / heute / ich / rufe / nicht)

Key takeaways

• When a sentence has more than one adverbial, the neutral German order is time, then manner, then place — a useful contrast with English, which has no single fixed order here.
• For whole-sentence negation, nicht neutrally comes after a time expression, but before manner and place — a place phrase doesn't neutrally get stranded after nicht at the very end. Nicht can still move to contrast just one word, the same "directly in front of what it negates" pattern from the earlier lesson.
• This is the same nicht you already know, just extended: it still comes right before a separable prefix or an infinitive once adverbials are added to the sentence.