nichts

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See also: Nichts

German

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Alternative forms

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  • nix (a very common colloquial pronunciation; frequently seen in informal writing)
  • nischt (dialectal, widely restricted to eastern Germany)

Etymology

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From Middle High German nihtes niht (nothing of nothing), a reenforcing construction with niht. See nicht.[1] Cognate with Dutch niets, Hunsrik nichs.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): [nɪçt͡s], /nixts/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪçt͡s

Pronoun

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nichts n (indefinite pronoun)

  1. nothing
    Ich weiß, dass ich nichts weiß.
    I know that I know nothing.

Usage notes

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  • Used instead of nicht to negate a sentence involving a non-specific noun.
    Gibt es da etwas? Nein, ich sehe nichts.Is there something there? No, I don't see anything.
  • Frequently, especially in spoken or informal language, accompanied by gar.
    Ich sehe gar nichts.I don't see anything at all.

Declension

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Invariable. A following adjective is capitalized and declined as a neuter singular in the strong pattern. Thus nichts Neues (“nothing new”) in the nominative and accusative cases; nichts Neuem in the dative case.

A genitive form does not exist. It is paraphrased by means of the preposition von (of). After the prepositions statt, trotz, während, and wegen, the dative case is used instead: wegen nichts Wichtigem – “because of nothing important” (i.e. because of something unimportant).

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Friedrich Kluge (1883) “nichts”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891

Further reading

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  • nichts” in Duden online
  • nichts” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Scots

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Noun

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nichts

  1. plural of nicht