Learn Hardcore German: Bislang hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen. - So far nobody has suggested a better idea.

bis jetzt can sound a bit more concrete, like “up to this very moment right now.”
bislang and bisher sound slightly more neutral and are common in both spoken and written German.
Some speakers feel bislang is a tiny bit more formal or written, but it’s still common in speech.

For learning purposes, you can treat bislang, bisher, and bis jetzt as near-synonyms here.

Why does the sentence start with Bislang and not with Niemand?

German main clauses follow the verb-second (V2) rule: the conjugated verb must be in second position.

You can put different elements in the first position, depending on what you want to emphasize or connect to the context:

Bislang hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.
- Focus on the time frame: Up to now, no one has suggested a better idea.
Niemand hat bislang eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.
- Focus on the fact that nobody has done it.

Both are correct. The first position is a “topic slot”: whatever you put there sets the frame or emphasis. The verb must still stay second.

Why is it hat niemand … vorgeschlagen instead of niemand hat … vorgeschlagen? Is one more correct?

Both are correct:

Bislang hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.
Bislang niemand hat eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen. ❌ (wrong – verb must be in 2nd position)
Niemand hat bislang eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen. ✅

In your sentence, Bislang occupies the first position (topic), so the conjugated verb hat must come second. That pushes niemand to third position.

If you start with Niemand, it becomes:

Niemand hat bislang eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.

So the order depends on what is in first position, but in all cases:

The conjugated verb (hat) must be second.
The past participle (vorgeschlagen) goes at the end of the clause.

Why is the verb in the form hat … vorgeschlagen and not just a simple past like schlug vor?

Hat … vorgeschlagen is the present perfect (Perfekt).
Schlug vor is the simple past (Präteritum).

In spoken German, the Perfekt is usually preferred for past events:

Bislang hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen. (most natural in speech)

In written German (especially narratives, reports, books), the Präteritum is also very common:

Bislang schlug niemand eine bessere Idee vor. (grammatically correct, a bit more written/literary)

In terms of meaning, the difference is small here; both refer to a past action with relevance up to now. For normal conversation, hat … vorgeschlagen is what you want.

Why do we use hat and not ist as the auxiliary?

In German, the present perfect uses haben or sein as auxiliaries:

sein → mainly with verbs of movement or change of state (gehen, kommen, werden, sterben, etc.).
haben → most other verbs, including transitive verbs (verbs that take a direct object).

Vorschlagen (“to suggest”) is a transitive verb:

jemand schlägt etwas vor
(someone suggests something)

Since it takes a direct object (eine bessere Idee), it uses haben:

hat vorgeschlagen, not ist vorgeschlagen.

What is going on with vorgeschlagen? Why is the prefix no longer separate?

Vorschlagen is a separable verb:

Infinitive: vorschlagen
Present tense: jemand schlägt etwas vor

In main clauses with simple tenses, the prefix vor- goes to the end:

Er schlägt eine Idee vor.
(He suggests an idea.)

In the Perfekt, you use:

auxiliary (hat)
- past participle (Partizip II)

For separable verbs, the past participle is formed like this:

vor (prefix) + ge
- schlagen → vorgeschlagen

In the perfect tense, the participle goes to the end of the clause:

Bislang hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.

So:

Finite verb (hat) = second position
Participle (vorgeschlagen) = final position

What exactly is niemand? Is it like kein or keiner?

Niemand is an indefinite pronoun meaning “nobody / no one.”

Compare:

niemand → “no one / nobody” (pronoun)
- Niemand hat angerufen. – No one called.
kein → “no / not any” (determiner before a noun)
- Kein Mensch hat angerufen. – No person called.
keiner → declined form of kein used as pronoun, very common in speech
- Keiner hat angerufen. – Nobody called.

In your sentence, niemand is the subject:

Niemand hat eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.

You could also say:

Bislang hat keiner eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen. (a bit more colloquial)

Is niemand grammatically singular or plural? Why hat and not haben?

Niemand is grammatically singular, even though it can refer to many people in meaning.

That’s why the verb is hat (3rd person singular), not haben:

Niemand hat eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen. ✅
Niemand haben eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen. ❌

Same with jemand (“someone”):

Jemand hat angerufen. – Someone called.

Why is it eine bessere Idee and not eine besser Idee or einen bessere Idee?

Three things are happening here:

Case
- Eine bessere Idee is the direct object of vorschlagen.
- Direct objects are usually in the accusative case.
Gender
- Idee is feminine: die Idee.
- Feminine nominative and accusative singular have the same forms.
Article + adjective endings
Pattern for feminine singular with eine:
- Nominative: eine bessere Idee
- Accusative: eine bessere Idee

So:

eine → correct article for feminine singular (nom./acc.)
bessere → correct adjective ending after eine in feminine singular (nom./acc.)
Idee → noun, feminine singular

Einen would be masculine accusative; that doesn’t match Idee.
besser without ending would be wrong here; adjectives before nouns need an ending.

How do I know eine bessere Idee is accusative and not nominative, since they look the same?

You have to look at the role in the sentence, not just the form.

The subject does the action → niemand (who is suggesting?).
The direct object receives the action → eine bessere Idee (what is being suggested?).

So:

Niemand (subject, nominative)
hat vorgeschlagen (verb)
eine bessere Idee (direct object, accusative)

Feminine nominative and accusative singular look identical with eine + adjective, so you use syntax (who is doing what to whom) to identify the case.

Why is the adjective bessere and not besserer or besseren?

Adjectives before nouns must agree with:

Gender (feminine)
Number (singular)
Case (here: accusative)
The type of article (eine = indefinite article)

The pattern for eine + feminine + singular + nominative/accusative is:

eine gute Idee
eine neue Idee
eine bessere Idee

So the ending is -e in that slot.

Other forms (for comparison):

die bessere Idee (with definite article, nominative/accusative singular)
mit einer besseren Idee (dative)
wegen einer besseren Idee (genitive)

In this sentence, eine bessere Idee is exactly the standard eine + Adj-e + feminine noun pattern.

Could I move the words around, like Niemand hat eine bessere Idee bislang vorgeschlagen?

Some movement is fine; some is odd or wrong.

Grammatically solid variants include:

Bislang hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.
Niemand hat bislang eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.
Niemand hat eine bessere Idee bislang vorgeschlagen. (possible, but bislang sounds slightly less natural here)

More unusual but still possible for emphasis:

Eine bessere Idee hat bislang niemand vorgeschlagen.
→ puts strong emphasis on “a better idea”

What you cannot change:

The conjugated verb must stay second.
The participle vorgeschlagen must stay at the end of the clause.

So something like:

Bislang niemand hat eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen. ❌ (verb not in 2nd position)
Bislang hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen hat. ❌ (two finite verbs, wrong position)

What is the difference between Bislang hat niemand … and Bislang hat noch niemand …?

Adding noch gives a stronger sense of “not yet (up to now)”.

Bislang hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.
→ Up to now, no one has suggested a better idea.
Bislang hat noch niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.
→ Up to now, still no one has suggested a better idea.
→ Subtle hint: it might still happen; we’re still waiting.

Both are correct; noch often appears with nicht/kein/niemand to express “yet”:

Noch hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.
Noch niemand hat eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.

What is the nuance of vorschlagen compared to verbs like empfehlen or sich etwas ausdenken?

All three can relate to ideas, but they’re not the same:

vorschlagen = “to suggest / propose”
- Focus: putting an idea on the table for others to consider.
- Er schlägt vor, eine Pause zu machen.
  He suggests taking a break.
empfehlen = “to recommend”
- Stronger sense of “I think this is good; you should do it.”
- Ich empfehle dir dieses Buch.
  I recommend this book to you.
sich etwas ausdenken = “to come up with / invent something (in your mind)”
- Focus: creating an idea.
- Sie hat sich eine tolle Idee ausgedacht.
  She came up with a great idea.

In your sentence, we’re talking about people putting forward a better idea, so vorschlagen is the natural choice:

Bislang hat niemand eine bessere Idee vorgeschlagen.
→ So far, no one has suggested a better idea.