I have many dobuts about the position of "nicht" in sentences.
For example, which one is correct:

"Geben Sie es nicht ihm?" or "Geben Sie es ihm nicht?"

Are there precise rules to decide it?

Thank you in advance :)

Is it the "thing" (es) or the person (ihm) that is the "problem?Both sentences are grammatically correct but it depends on what you want to emphasise: not giving that particular thing to him, or not giving the thing to that particular person.

As Marianne10 says, it's the stress in the question that dictates the position of nicht.

Geben Sie es nicht IHM? You surprise me, I thought you'd give it to him - instead of giving it to XYZ.

Geben Sie es ihm nicht? Here the 'it' is hardly stressed. Aren't you giving it to him?

Geben Sie es nicht IHM! Don't give it to HIM! Geben Sie es ihm nicht! Don't give it to him!

Thank you Marianne and Sanne! It's perfectly clear. :)

So, if I'm understanding right, in general you can put "nicht" wherever you want - according to the sense you want to give to the sentence.

In this example - a question - you COULD put it between "Geben nicht SIE es ihm?", but it does sound a bit archaic. I'd say "Geben SIE es ihm nicht?"

You WOULD NOT say "Geben Sie nicht es ihm?" Here the nicht cannot go before the Acc pron.


According to German word order the verb is in second position in a statement . Therefore: Ich gebe es ihm . Ich gebe es ihm NICHT. ICH gebe es ihm nicht. Ich gebe es nicht IHM. Ich gebe es IHM nicht. You would NOT say "ich nicht gebe...