Concessive adverb 'nichtsdestotrotz' (notwithstanding)

nichtsdestotrotz is an emphatic concessive adverb meaning notwithstanding / nonetheless. It is a slightly playful blend of the older nichtsdestoweniger and trotz, and it stresses that an action or fact persists in spite of a contrary circumstance.

Like other concessive adverbs, it is not a conjunction: when it heads a clause it fills the Vorfeld and forces subject-verb inversion (finite verb in second position):

• Es war spät; nichtsdestotrotz arbeiteten wir weiter. - It was late; notwithstanding, we kept working.
• Die Kritik war heftig; nichtsdestotrotz hielt er an dem Projekt fest. - The criticism was fierce; nonetheless he stood by the project.
• Sie hatte kaum geschlafen. Nichtsdestotrotz erschien sie pünktlich. - She had barely slept. All the same, she turned up on time.

Common mistakes:

• Word-final verb placement as if it were obwohl - wrong; it triggers inversion.
• Spelling it as two words or mixing it with nichtsdestoweniger (nichtsdestoweniger trotz does not exist).
• Overusing it; one emphatic concessive per passage is enough, otherwise the prose sounds laboured.

'nichtsdestotrotz' (notwithstanding) is an emphatic concessive adverb; causes inversion.

Emphatic 'nonetheless'; at the start of a clause it causes inversion.

'nichtsdestotrotz' ist ein nachdrückliches Konzessivadverb; führt zur Inversion.