Ohne Punkt ist der Satz nicht fertig.

German often moves one element to the beginning of the sentence for emphasis. Here, Ohne Punkt is placed first to highlight the condition: without a period.

Even though Ohne Punkt comes first, German still keeps the finite verb in the second position:

• Ohne Punkt | ist | der Satz nicht fertig.

This is a very common German word-order pattern.

Because standard German main clauses usually follow the verb-second rule, often called V2.

That means the conjugated verb must come in the second slot, no matter what comes first.

So in this sentence:

• Ohne Punkt = first slot
• ist = second slot
• der Satz = comes after the verb

If you started with the subject instead, you would get:

• Der Satz ist ohne Punkt nicht fertig.

That is also correct, but the emphasis is slightly different.

Ohne always takes the accusative case.

So if there is an article or adjective after ohne, it must be accusative:

• ohne den Punkt
• ohne einen Punkt
• ohne einen wichtigen Punkt

In your sentence, there is no article, so you do not see the case ending directly:

• ohne Punkt

But grammatically, Punkt is still understood as being governed by ohne.

German sometimes leaves out the article after ohne, especially when speaking in a general sense.

So:

• ohne Punkt = without a period / without any period
• ohne einen Punkt = also possible, but more concrete or specific

In this sentence, ohne Punkt sounds like a general rule about punctuation. It is not about one particular period as an object; it is about the idea of a sentence lacking its final punctuation mark.

Because der Satz is the subject of the sentence, and the subject is in the nominative case.

The basic structure is:

• der Satz = the sentence
• ist nicht fertig = is not finished

So:

• der Satz is nominative
• Punkt is part of the prepositional phrase with ohne

That is why you get:

• Ohne Punkt ist der Satz nicht fertig.

and not:

• Ohne Punkt ist den Satz nicht fertig. ✘

Because fertig is being used as a predicate adjective after sein.

In German, adjectives used this way do not take adjective endings.

Compare:

• der fertige Satz = the finished sentence
  
  • here the adjective is before the noun, so it gets an ending
• der Satz ist fertig = the sentence is finished
  
  • here the adjective is after sein, so it gets no ending

So fertig stays just fertig.

Here, nicht is negating the idea of being fertig.

So the meaning is:

• the sentence is not finished

That is why the natural word order is:

• Der Satz ist nicht fertig.

With predicate adjectives, nicht commonly appears before the adjective or adjective-like expression it negates.

If you moved nicht elsewhere, the focus could change or the sentence could sound unnatural.

Here Punkt means the punctuation mark at the end of a sentence:

• in American English: period
• in British English: full stop

German Punkt can also mean point in other contexts, but in this sentence it clearly refers to punctuation.

Yes. That is also correct.

Compare:

• Ohne Punkt ist der Satz nicht fertig.
• Der Satz ist ohne Punkt nicht fertig.

Both mean the same thing, but the emphasis changes:

• Ohne Punkt ... puts more focus on the condition without a period
• Der Satz ... starts more neutrally with the subject

This kind of movement is very normal in German.

Because they are nouns, and in German all nouns are capitalized.

So:

• Punkt
• Satz

are capitalized no matter where they appear in the sentence.

This is one of the most noticeable spelling rules in German.

Fertig is very natural here and often means finished, done, or ready.

In this sentence, it suggests that the sentence is not properly completed yet.

You could also say:

• Ohne Punkt ist der Satz nicht vollständig.

That means something like Without a period, the sentence is not complete.

That is possible too, but fertig sounds very natural in everyday German, especially in a teaching context.