Learn Hardcore German: Ohne Tee ist meine Laune schlimmer als sonst.

Ohne Tee ist meine Laune schlimmer als sonst.
First element: Ohne Tee
Second (verb) position: ist
Meine Laune ist ohne Tee schlimmer als sonst.
First element: Meine Laune
Second (verb) position: ist

Both are grammatically correct.

Putting Ohne Tee first gives it emphasis: it highlights the condition “Without tea…”. The version starting with Meine Laune is more neutral and closer to typical English word order.

Why is it Ohne Tee without any article (the, a)?

In German, after certain prepositions you often omit the article if you’re talking about something in general, especially with uncountable or generic nouns like food and drink:

Ohne Tee – without tea (in general)
Ohne Kaffee – without coffee
Ohne Zucker – without sugar

You could use an article if you mean something more specific, for example:

Ohne den Tee, den du gemacht hast, ist meine Laune schlimmer.
Without the tea that you made, my mood is worse.

But in your sentence, we mean tea in general, so no article is natural: Ohne Tee.

What case is Tee in, and why? I thought Tee looks nominative.

The preposition ohne always takes the accusative case.

So:

ohne Tee = without tea (Tee = accusative singular)

Here you can’t see the accusative visually, because Tee is masculine and its nominative and accusative forms are the same:

Nominative: der Tee
Accusative: den Tee
But without article: just Tee in both cases

So grammatically it is accusative, even though the word form doesn’t change.

Why is it meine Laune and not meiner Laune or meine Stimmung?

Two parts to this:

Case and ending
The phrase meine Laune is the subject of the sentence, so it’s in the nominative case.
- Laune = feminine noun, die Laune
- Nominative singular feminine: die Laune
- With mein-: meine Laune
Meiner Laune would be dative or genitive, which doesn’t fit here, because the subject must be nominative.
Laune vs. Stimmung
Both can mean something like mood, but:
- Laune = more about personal, temporary mood, like “I’m in a good/bad mood now.”
- Stimmung = can be personal too, but often atmosphere, vibe, or a broader mood (of a group, room, event, etc.).
In Ohne Tee ist meine Laune schlimmer als sonst, we clearly talk about the speaker’s personal mood, so Laune is the natural choice.

Why is it schlimmer and not schlechter? What’s the difference?

Both schlimm and schlecht can translate as bad, but they have different nuances:

schlecht = bad in a more neutral, functional way
- schlechtes Wetter – bad weather
- schlechte Note – bad grade
- Mir geht es schlecht. – I feel bad / I’m unwell.
schlimm = bad in the sense of serious, severe, awful, worse than normal
- eine schlimme Krankheit – a serious illness
- Das ist schlimm. – That’s awful / That’s serious.
- Es wird immer schlimmer. – It keeps getting worse.

In casual speech about mood, schlimm often sounds more dramatic or humorous:
Ohne Tee ist meine Laune schlimmer als sonst. suggests: “My mood is seriously worse than usual (I’m impossible without tea).”

You could say schlechter, but schlimmer adds that extra “worse in a more serious / extreme way” flavor.

How does the comparison schlimmer als sonst work? Why als and not wie?

This is the standard German comparative structure:

Comparative adjective + als = more … than

Examples:

größer als du – taller than you
teurer als gestern – more expensive than yesterday
schlimmer als sonst – worse than usual

So:

schlimmer = comparative of schlimm (worse)
als = than

Wie is used with equality, not comparative:

so … wie = as … as
- so groß wie du – as tall as you

Using wie with a comparative (e.g. schlimmer wie) is common in some dialects, but in standard German you should use als with comparatives: schlimmer als.

What exactly does sonst mean here? I’ve seen it mean otherwise, or else, etc.

Sonst is quite flexible. Common meanings:

Otherwise / or else
- Beeil dich, sonst kommst du zu spät.
  Hurry up, otherwise you’ll be late.
Usually / normally / as a rule
- Er ist sonst sehr pünktlich.
  He’s usually very punctual.

In schlimmer als sonst, sonst means “at other times / usually / normally”.

So schlimmer als sonst = worse than (it is) normally → worse than usual.

That’s why the whole sentence can be translated as something like:
Without tea, my mood is worse than usual.

Why is the verb ist in second position, even though the sentence starts with Ohne Tee?

Because in German main clauses (statements), the finite (conjugated) verb must be in second position:

Position 1: Ohne Tee (a prepositional phrase)
Position 2: ist (the verb)
Rest: meine Laune schlimmer als sonst

The “second position” rule counts whole phrases, not individual words. So Ohne Tee together is one element, and then ist must come right after it.

Compare:

Meine Laune ist ohne Tee schlimmer als sonst.
Position 1: Meine Laune
Position 2: ist

Why is the adjective just schlimmer and not something like schlimmere or schlimmeren with extra endings?

In ist meine Laune schlimmer als sonst, schlimmer is a predicate adjective after sein (ist):

Laune (subject)
ist (verb)
schlimmer (subject complement / predicate adjective)

Predicate adjectives in German do not take extra adjective endings:

Meine Laune ist gut. (not gute)
Dein Kaffee ist stark. (not starker)
Ohne Tee ist meine Laune schlimmer als sonst.

Adjective endings (-e, -en, -em, etc.) are used when the adjective directly modifies a noun:

eine schlimme Laune – a bad mood
meine schlimmere Laune – my worse mood

But in your sentence, schlimmer does not come before a noun; it’s part of the predicate, so no extra ending.

Could I also say Ohne Tee wird meine Laune schlimmer als sonst? What’s the difference to ist?

Yes, that would be grammatically correct, but the nuance changes:

Ohne Tee ist meine Laune schlimmer als sonst.
States a general fact or regular situation:
Whenever I don’t have tea, my mood (already) is worse than usual.
Ohne Tee wird meine Laune schlimmer als sonst.
Focuses more on a change over time:
Without tea, my mood becomes / gets worse than usual.
You imagine the mood getting worse as time passes without tea.

Both are understandable; ist sounds like a stable, habitual fact, while wird highlights the process of becoming worse.