"With water everything starts over."

[BigBob8989]

Is 'Mit Wasser alles beginnt von Neuem' so much different from the accepted translation?

[amoussa]

Don't ask me for the grammatical reasons but the word order is not correct in German!

[wataya]

the rule is: keep the verb in second position. So, 'Alles (1) beginnt(2) mit Wasser(3) von Neuem (4)' would be possible. 'Mit Wasser (1) alles (2) beginnt (3) ... ' is not.

[BigBob8989]

But here the verb is in third position :) (but I assume the preposition does not count).

[wataya]

It's in second position. That's why I put the numbers there. The 'mit' is part of the dative object.

[BigBob8989]

Sure, you made it perfectly clear, I was just fooling around. Thanks for the explanation.

[jdgomezm]

Why Neuem?

[elenabella]

Why is there no "Wasser" in the correct answer?

[wataya]

It's an error. Please report it.