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