Weder die Katze noch der Hund schläft heute im Haus.

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Breakdown of Weder die Katze noch der Hund schläft heute im Haus.

• dem: the; (masculine or neuter, dative)
• das Haus: the house
• der Hund: the dog

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?