"Az óvónő nem megy vissza az áruházba."

Translation: The kindergarten teacher is not going back into the department store.

[BetsyLowe]

Not flying back into the department store?

[KureStaljin1917]

It's raining, so she can't fly!

[JMaxGlobal]

No water to walk on. No Earth to fly over. Poor, poor kindergarten teacher - she is loosing all her magical talents.

[clairelanc3]

Why in this sentence is it "nem megy vissza" with the sunject first,and in the previous one,also with the subject first,it was ""nem az iskolába megy" with the verb in the end? Please,it is very frustrating not to understand the ligic...

[RyagonIV]

Basically, if you just want to say that an action does not happen, you put nem right before the verb (and have the prefix split off):

• Az óvónő nem megy vissza az áruházba. - The kindergarten teacher is not going back into the department store.

But if you want to say that the action does happen, just with a different parameter, you wedge that parameter between nem and the verb stem:

• Az óvónő nem az áruházba megy vissza. ~ The kindergarten teacher is going back, not into the department store.

But this sentence alone sounds incomplete. The listener will want to know what is happening instead, where the kindergarten teacher is going instead. You usually add another clause with a hanem construction, explaining this:

• Az óvónő nem az áruházba megy vissza, hamen a rendőrségre. - The kindergarten teacher is not going back to the department store, but to the police station.

[Judit294350]

It is the focus thing - and it can be hard. "nem megy vissza" - the most important thing is "nem" that is she is NOT going back - the vissza must always be split with "nem".

Without seeing the whole sentence "nem az iskolába megy" would suggest to me she is going - but not to the school ie she is going somewhere else.

[clairelanc3]

Thank you,but without any intonation it is hard to know what they want to place the emphasis on.

[Judit294350]

The rule is, "nem" always gets focus (if it negates the verb) so must ALWAYS precede the verb.

[JohnWeber786406]

It is the negation with no verb comparison. if it's involving verbs --- nem (verb1).....hanem (verb2), then the prefix is still before the verb. ex. nem visszamegy az áruházba, hanem besétál a piacba. *Not going back to the department store, but walking into the market.