Word
Er hat die Laktose heute leider nicht vertragen.
Meaning
Unfortunately, he did not tolerate the lactose today.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Er hat die Laktose heute leider nicht vertragen.
Why is nicht placed all the way at the end, right before the past participle?
In this sentence, nicht negates the entire action of tolerating (vertragen). When you negate a whole verb in the perfect tense, nicht gets pushed almost to the very end of the sentence, sitting directly before the past participle (vertragen). It must come after the direct object (die Laktose) and the adverbs (heute, leider).
Could I put nicht right after hat to say "he did not tolerate"?
If you place nicht earlier, like right after the helping verb (Er hat nicht die Laktose...), it changes the focus. Instead of negating the verb, it specifically negates the noun right after it. It would imply he didn't tolerate the lactose (but maybe he tolerated something else). To say the action itself just didn't happen, nicht belongs right before the past participle.
Why does heute come before leider?
German follows a general rule for adverb placement often remembered as "Time, Manner, Place". The word heute tells us when (Time), and leider is an adverb expressing an attitude or how we view the situation (Manner). Because Time usually comes before Manner in a German sentence, heute precedes leider.
Why doesn't the past participle vertragen have a ge- at the beginning?