Formnicht / kein / nie … , sondern …
Meaning and usage
sondern means but rather. It comes after a negative word such as nicht, kein or nie, and replaces the wrong information with the right one: Sie ist nicht meine Schwester, sondern meine Frau. It can join two words or phrases, as here, or two whole clauses: Ich fahre nicht mit dem Bus, sondern ich gehe zu Fuß. sondern does not change the word order, and a comma always comes before it.
Use sondern only when you replace one thing with another. If you only add a contrast without a negative before it, use aber: Ich bin müde, aber glücklich. A common mistake is to write sondern after a positive statement, or to put the verb at the end as if sondern were a subordinating conjunction.
Examples 5
Sie ist nicht meine Freundin, sondern meine Schwester.
She's not my girlfriend. She's my sister.
Er ist nicht mein Freund, sondern mein Bruder.
He's not my boyfriend. He's my brother.
Er ist nicht mein Vater, sondern mein Onkel.
He is not my father but my uncle.
Was ich möchte, ist nicht Tee, sondern Kaffee.
What I want isn't tea, but coffee.
Er hat es nicht einmal, sondern zweimal getan.
He did it not once, but twice.
Test yourself
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1 Sprachbausteine
Das ist mein Bruder, sondern mein Cousin.
Show answer
Correct answer: nicht
nicht is the negative word that sondern needs, and it can stand before the noun phrase mein Bruder. kein and nie do not fit here, and aber cannot be followed by sondern.
- nie means never and does not fit before a simple noun phrase here.
- aber is a contrast word, but the second part already has sondern, so aber cannot stand in the same slot.
- kein would have to come before a noun without a possessive article, so kein mein Bruder is not possible.
In this topic: Subordinate clauses
- weil … Verb because, with the verb at the end
- weil … Verb / denn + Hauptsatz denn keeps normal order, weil sends the verb to the end
- dass … Verb say, think or know something with dass, verb at the end
- wenn … Verb if or whenever, with the verb at the end
- obwohl … Verb although: a contrast clause with the verb at the end
- nicht …, sondern not X, but rather Y
- …, dass er kommen kann. two verb parts in a subordinate clause: finite verb last
- …, weil ich früh aufstehe. separable verb joins as one word at the end
- Weil ich krank bin, bleibe ich zu Hause. Subordinate clause first, then verb, comma, verb
Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. See sources.