Learn Hardcore German: Wenn meine Mitbewohnerin spät nach Hause kommt, passiert meistens nichts Neues, sie ist nur müde. - When my roommate comes home late, usually nothing new happens, she is just tired.

Main clause word order: Sie kommt spät nach Hause. (verb in position 2)
Subordinate clause word order: …wenn sie spät nach Hause kommt. (verb at the end)

Why does the next part start with passiert and not with a subject, like es passiert?

The second part is a main clause:

passiert meistens nichts Neues

In German, the finite verb must be in position 2 in a main clause. But “position 2” is counted after whatever is in the first slot. Here, the entire Wenn-…-kommt clause occupies the first slot.

So the main clause starts like this:

Wenn meine Mitbewohnerin spät nach Hause kommt, → whole clause = position 1
passiert → verb in position 2
meistens nichts Neues → rest of the clause

Also, the subject here is nichts Neues (literally: nothing new), so the word order is:

passiert (verb)
meistens (adverb)
nichts Neues (subject)

German allows the subject after the verb when the first position is already filled, as long as the finite verb is still in overall position 2. Adding es (es passiert) would also be grammatically possible but changes the rhythm and slightly emphasizes es as a dummy subject. The given sentence is natural and idiomatic.

What is the difference between wenn, als, and wann? Why is wenn used here?

All three can be translated as when, but they are used differently:

wenn
- For repeated events in the past, present, or future
- For conditions (if/whenever)
  Example: Wenn sie spät nach Hause kommt, ist sie müde.
  (Whenever/If she comes home late, she’s tired.)
als
- For one specific event in the past
  Example: Als sie gestern spät nach Hause kam, war sie müde.
  (When she came home late yesterday, she was tired.)
wann
- For questions about time (direct or indirect)
  Example: Wann kommt sie nach Hause? – When is she coming home?
  Example: Ich weiß nicht, wann sie nach Hause kommt. – I don’t know when she’s coming home.

In the given sentence, wenn is correct because it describes something that generally happens whenever she comes home late, not one specific past event.

Why is it meine Mitbewohnerin and not meiner Mitbewohnerin?

Mitbewohnerin is a feminine noun (female roommate / flatmate).

In the clause Wenn meine Mitbewohnerin spät nach Hause kommt, meine Mitbewohnerin is the subject, so it must be in the nominative case:

Feminine nominative: die Mitbewohnerin → with possessive: meine Mitbewohnerin
Feminine dative: der Mitbewohnerin → meiner Mitbewohnerin (used, for example, after some prepositions or verbs)

Compare:

Meine Mitbewohnerin kommt nach Hause. (nominative subject)
Ich helfe meiner Mitbewohnerin. (dative object)

So meine is correct here because we need nominative.

What’s the difference between nach Hause and zu Hause? Why is it spät nach Hause kommt?

nach Hause and zu Hause answer different questions:

nach Hause = to home (movement, direction)
- Used when someone is going home / coming home
- Question: Wohin? (Where to?)
- Example: Sie kommt spät nach Hause. – She comes home late.
zu Hause = at home (location)
- Used when someone is already at home
- Question: Wo? (Where?)
- Example: Sie ist zu Hause müde. – She is tired at home.

In the sentence, she is coming home (movement), so nach Hause is correct, not zu Hause.

Why is it spät nach Hause kommt and not nach Hause spät kommt?

In German, the typical order of adverbials is:

Time (wann? – when?)
Manner (wie? – how?)
Place / direction (wo? wohin? – where? to where?)

In spät nach Hause kommt:

spät = time (when?)
nach Hause = direction (where to?)

So spät naturally comes before nach Hause.
nach Hause spät kommt sounds unusual and unidiomatic in standard German.

What does meistens mean here, and how is it different from meist or oft?

meistens = mostly / most of the time
- Describes what usually happens
- Example: Meistens passiert nichts Neues. – Most of the time nothing new happens.
meist
- In everyday speech, often used like meistens, but slightly shorter and a bit more formal or literary in some contexts
- Example: Meist passiert nichts Neues.
oft = often
- Means it happens frequently, but not necessarily in the majority of cases
- Example: Oft passiert nichts Neues. – Often nothing new happens.

In this sentence, meistens emphasizes that in most cases when she comes home late, nothing new happens.

Why is Neues in nichts Neues capitalized?

Neues comes from the adjective neu (new). Here it is used as a noun, meaning anything new or something new.

In German:

When an adjective is used without a noun but in place of a noun, it becomes a substantiviertes Adjektiv (nominalized adjective).
Nominalized adjectives are capitalized.

So:

etwas Neues – something new
nichts Gutes – nothing good
alles Wichtige – everything important

In nichts Neues:

nichts = nothing
Neues = anything new (neuter, singular, capitalized, with the -es ending)

That is why Neues is written with a capital N.

Why is there a comma before sie ist nur müde instead of a conjunction like und?

The part sie ist nur müde is another main clause:

… passiert meistens nichts Neues,
sie ist nur müde.

In German, two independent main clauses can be:

connected without a conjunction, in which case you must separate them with a comma (or a semicolon):
- Es regnet, ich bleibe zu Hause.
or connected with a conjunction (und, aber, etc.), then the comma is often optional depending on the rule.

Here, the writer simply placed two main clauses side by side, separated by a comma. You could also say:

… passiert meistens nichts Neues, und sie ist nur müde.

That would be correct too, but a bit more explicit. The original version is natural and common in written German.

What does nur do in sie ist nur müde, and could the word order be different?

nur here means only / just:

sie ist nur müde = she is only/just tired (nothing worse, nothing dramatic)

Position of nur is important because it tells you what is being limited:

Sie ist nur müde. → It’s only her state that is limited (she’s not sick, not angry, etc., just tired).

Other positions would change the meaning:

Nur sie ist müde. → Only she is tired (everyone else is not).
Sie ist müde nur. → Grammatically possible but sounds strange and very marked in modern German.

So:

sie ist nur müde is the natural word order to say she’s just tired and to clarify that nothing special/dramatic is going on, which fits the meaning of the full sentence.