Question 1

Why is dürfen used for "not allowed to" instead of a negative form of müssen?

Accepted Answer

In English, we often say "must not" to forbid something. But in German, müssen is strictly about necessity. To forbid something, German negates permission using nicht dürfen, which literally means "not permitted to". If you were to say Sie müssen nicht, it would mean "You don't have to" (meaning you have a choice), rather than "You must not".

Question 2

Why do the action verbs rauchen and bleiben appear at the very end of their clauses?

Accepted Answer

This is the standard word order when using modal verbs. The modal verb (dürfen or müssen) takes the second position and changes to match the subject. The main action verb (rauchen for smoking, and bleiben for staying) gets pushed to the very end of the clause in its basic dictionary form.

Question 3

How can we tell Sie means the formal "you" here, rather than "she" or "they"?

Accepted Answer

First, the verbs dürfen and müssen have the plural -en ending, so the subject cannot be "she" (which would be sie darf and sie muss). Second, Sie is capitalized in the middle of the sentence right after the comma. This capitalization is the absolute giveaway for the formal "you". If it meant "they", that second sie would be lowercase.

Question 4

Why does the location word hier come before nicht?

Accepted Answer

When negating a full action with a modal verb, nicht usually gets pushed toward the end of the sentence, sitting just before the final infinitive verb (rauchen). Because of this, time and location words like hier (here) will naturally come before nicht in this sentence structure.

Sie dürfen hier nicht rauchen, Sie müssen draußen bleiben.

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