Breakdown of Geben Sie ihm den Code nicht, sonst stiehlt er Ihre Daten.
er
he
Sie
you (formal)
nicht
not
geben
to give
Questions & Answers about Geben Sie ihm den Code nicht, sonst stiehlt er Ihre Daten.
Why is the word order sonst stiehlt er instead of sonst er stiehlt?
Sonst (otherwise) is an adverbial connector. When it starts a clause, it takes up the first position. In German, the verb must come second, so the verb stiehlt comes right after sonst, pushing the subject er into the third position. This is different from words like und or aber, which occupy position zero and don't change the word order.
Why is the German present tense stiehlt translated as the future tense 'will steal'?
In German, it is extremely common to use the present tense to express future actions, especially when the context makes it obvious that it hasn't happened yet. Using the actual future tense (sonst wird er Ihre Daten stehlen) would sound unnecessarily clunky here.
Why does the pronoun ihm come before den Code?
In German, when a sentence has both a pronoun object (ihm) and a noun object (den Code), the pronoun almost always comes first. Here, the dative pronoun (ihm) precedes the accusative noun (den Code).
Why is nicht placed at the very end of the first clause?
You are negating the entire action of giving him the code, rather than a specific word. When negating a whole verb action, nicht is pushed as far to the end of the clause as possible.