Learn Hardcore German: Nie habe ich so viele E‑Mails ohne Vorlage geschrieben. - Never have I written so many emails without a template.

German main clauses are verb‑second. Whatever you put in first position (here: Nie) pushes the conjugated verb into second position, and the subject follows it. Hence: Nie habe ich …, just like Heute habe ich … or Plötzlich stand er ….

What would be the neutral, everyday word order for the same idea?

Most natural in speech: Ich habe (noch) nie so viele E‑Mails ohne Vorlage geschrieben.
Fronting Nie is emphatic/rhetorical. If you want the unmarked version, keep nie inside the clause after the verb.

What’s the difference between nie, noch nie, and niemals?

nie = never (can be absolute or understood as “never up to now” from context)
noch nie = never yet (explicitly “not at any time up to now”); very common in this context
niemals = never ever; a bit stronger or more formal/literary than nie

All three fit here; noch nie is probably the most idiomatic in everyday speech: Ich habe noch nie so viele … geschrieben.

Why is geschrieben at the end?

It’s the perfect tense. The finite auxiliary (habe) is in second position, and the past participle (geschrieben) goes to the clause‑final position: … habe … geschrieben.
In a subordinate clause, both go to the end: …, dass ich so viele E‑Mails ohne Vorlage geschrieben habe.

Why is the auxiliary haben and not sein?

German uses sein with intransitives of motion or change of state (e.g., gehen, kommen, sterben) and with sein/bleiben/werden; most other verbs, especially transitive ones like schreiben, take haben. Hence ich habe geschrieben.

What case does ohne take, and why is there no article in ohne Vorlage?

ohne always governs the accusative: ohne (die) Vorlage → ohne Vorlage.
German often omits an article after ohne when the noun is generic: ohne Brille, ohne Zucker, ohne Vorlage.
You could say ohne eine Vorlage, but it sounds heavier and usually adds slight emphasis to “a (single) template.”

Can I move ohne Vorlage elsewhere in the sentence?

Yes. Common options change emphasis slightly:

Ich habe (noch) nie so viele E‑Mails ohne Vorlage geschrieben. (neutral)
Ohne Vorlage habe ich (noch) nie so viele E‑Mails geschrieben. (fronts the condition)
Ich habe (noch) nie ohne Vorlage so viele E‑Mails geschrieben. (focus on “without a template” right before the quantity)

All are grammatical.

What exactly does so viele contribute here?

so viele = “this/that many; such a large number,” typically relative to some context or expectation.
Use viele for plural count nouns and viel for mass/uncountable nouns:

so viele E‑Mails (countable plural)
so viel Arbeit (uncountable)

Is E‑Mails the correct spelling?

Yes. Standard spelling is die E‑Mail (singular) and die E‑Mails (plural) with a hyphen and capital E.
Avoid Emails without a hyphen; Email in German usually means “enamel.” You’ll also see E-Mail with a regular hyphen; both are fine.

Is starting a sentence with Nie normal?

Grammatically yes, stylistically emphatic. Nie habe ich … sounds rhetorical, dramatic, or literary—similar to English “Never have I …”. In everyday conversation, people usually say Ich habe (noch) nie ….

Could I use simple past instead of the perfect?

Yes, but it’s stylistically marked here: Nie schrieb ich so viele E‑Mails ohne Vorlage. That sounds quite literary. In most spoken German, you’d stick with the perfect: Ich habe (noch) nie … geschrieben.

Does ohne Vorlage describe the emails or the act of writing?

It modifies the manner of writing (the verb), i.e., “wrote them without using a template.” You can test this by moving it: Ohne Vorlage habe ich … geschrieben. If it were attributive to the noun, you’d expect something like so viele E‑Mails, die ohne Vorlage sind, which would be odd here.

Where should nie go if I don’t front it?

Place it in the midfield before what it semantically negates. Here the standard is:

Ich habe nie so viele E‑Mails ohne Vorlage geschrieben. Ending the sentence with nie (e.g., … geschrieben nie) is uncommon and sounds off.

Should there be a comma after Nie?

No. It’s just an adverb in first position; the verb follows immediately: Nie habe ich … Without a parenthetical or clause boundary, a comma would be wrong.

Does German allow double negation like English dialects do?

No negative concord. Stacking negatives usually cancels out. Avoid forms like Ich habe nie keine E‑Mails …; it tends to read as a logical double negative (“I have at no time not written…”), which is not what you want. Use a single, well‑placed nie (or kein where appropriate).

Can I drop so and just say viele?

You can, but it changes the meaning. Ich habe nie viele E‑Mails … geschrieben = “I have never written many emails …” (a general statement).
Ich habe nie so viele E‑Mails … geschrieben = “I have never written this many …” (emphasizes an unusually high number, relative to a benchmark).