nichts
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See also: Nichts
German[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- nix (a very common colloquial pronunciation; frequently seen in informal writing)
- nischt (dialectal, widely restricted to eastern Germany)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle High German nihtes niht (“nothing of nothing”), a reenforcing construction with niht. See nicht.[1] Cognate with Dutch niets, Hunsrik nichs.
Pronunciation[edit]
Pronoun[edit]
nichts n (indefinite pronoun)
- nothing
- Ich weiß, dass ich nichts weiß.
- I know that I know nothing.
Usage notes[edit]
- 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[edit]
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).
References[edit]
- ^ Friedrich Kluge (1883) “nichts”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891
Further reading[edit]
Scots[edit]
Noun[edit]
nichts