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Breakdown of Weder die Katze noch der Hund schläft heute im Haus.
in
in
dem
the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
das Haus
the house
der Hund
the dog
die Katze
the cat
schlafen
to sleep
heute
today
weder
neither
noch
nor
Questions & Answers about Weder die Katze noch der Hund schläft heute im Haus.
What does the correlative conjunction weder … noch mean and how is it used in this sentence?
weder … noch is the German equivalent of neither … nor. You put weder before the first element you’re denying (die Katze) and noch before the second (der Hund). The fixed pattern is weder + NP1 + noch + NP2, all within one clause.
Why is the verb schläft in the singular form, even though two animals are mentioned?
With disjunctive coordinators like weder … noch (and similarly with oder), the verb agrees with the nearer subject. Here der Hund (3rd person singular) follows noch, so we use schläft rather than schlafen. If the nouns were joined by und or sowohl … als auch, the verb would normally be plural.
Why does schläft come immediately after Weder die Katze noch der Hund?
German is a V2-language (verb-second). No matter what you put first, the finite verb must occupy the second position. Here the entire phrase Weder die Katze noch der Hund counts as the first constituent, so schläft follows right away.
Why isn’t there a comma between die Katze and noch der Hund?
weder … noch is a correlative conjunction linking two parts of a single clause. German only requires commas for subordinate clauses or when certain single conjunctions (like aber, sondern) separate independent clauses—not for paired conjunctions such as weder … noch.
Why is the prepositional phrase im Haus in the dative case?
When in expresses a static location, German uses the dative. in + dem Haus contracts to im Haus. If you wanted movement into the house, you’d switch to the accusative (ins Haus).
Why does heute come before im Haus rather than after?
German typically orders adverbials as Time – Manner – Place. heute is a time expression, im Haus is a place phrase, so heute precedes im Haus. You could swap them, but it sounds less natural.
Why are the definite articles die and der repeated instead of shared, as in English “neither the cat nor the dog”?
In German, each noun in a coordination normally needs its own article to mark gender, number, and case. Here die Katze is feminine nominative and der Hund is masculine nominative, so you must repeat the correct article each time.
Which grammatical case are die Katze and der Hund in, and why?
Both are in the nominative case because they jointly function as the subject of the verb schläft.
More from this lesson
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“How do German cases work?”
German has four grammatical cases: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object), and genitive (possession). The case determines the form of articles and adjectives. For example, "the dog" is "der Hund" as a subject but "den Hund" as a direct object.
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