What's the difference between "nicht" & "nicht mehr"?

Question

What's the difference between the following sentences:

Wir hatten uns schon länger nicht mehr gesehen.

Wir hatten uns schon länger nicht gesehen.

EDIT - another example:

Viele der alten Krankheiten plagen uns heute nicht mehr.

Viele der alten Krankheiten plagen uns heute nicht.

guidot · Answer 1 · 2022-08-03T14:29:48.890

2

I guess, this is a duplicate, but could not find the earlier question.

There is no difference in respect to the long time span you didn't see each other. The nicht mehr variant implies however, that you used to meet quite frequently earlier.

(I can't provide a satisfying reference for this right now.)

In the second example nicht mehr reflects the expectation, that this also holds for the future, while nicht only refers to the current moment.

edited Aug 03 '22 at 14:29

answered Aug 03 '22 at 13:31

guidot

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+1. Good point about the distinction of how things used to be earlier. – planetmaker Aug 03 '22 at 13:33
But, the thing is, if it wasn't someone I see quite often, I wouldn't even bother telling him/her "Hey, we haven't seen each other for quite some time" – KeN SmilePachI Aug 03 '22 at 14:07
@KeN SmilePachI: This kind of thing is fairly common in English, there's even an idiom "Long time no see." – RDBury Aug 03 '22 at 14:15
@RDBury yeah but how would that translate in German? with "nicht mehr" or only "nicht"? – KeN SmilePachI Aug 03 '22 at 19:21

What's the difference between "nicht" & "nicht mehr"?

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