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Negatives

German Negatives
There are different ways to negate expressions in German (much like in English you can use
"no" in some cases, and "does not" in others). The German adverb nicht (not) is used very
often, but sometimes you need to use kein (not a).

Nicht
As mentioned in the lesson "Not", you should use nicht in the following situations:

Negating a noun that has a definite article like der Junge (the boy) in Das ist nicht der
Junge. (That is not the boy).

Negating a noun that has a possessive pronoun like mein Glas (my glass) in Das ist nicht
mein Glas. (That is not my glass).

Negating the verb: Ich trinke nicht. (I do not drink.).

Negating an adverb or adverbial phrase. For instance, Ich tanze nicht oft. (I do not dance
often)

Negating an adjective that is used with sein (to be): Ich bin nicht hungrig. (I am not
hungry).

For details, and to learn where to put nicht in a sentence, refer to the "Not" lesson.

Kein
Simply put, kein is composed of k + ein and placed where the indefinite article would be in a
sentence. If you want to negate ein, use kein.

Just like mein and the other possessive pronouns, kein changes its ending like ein.

For instance, look at the positive and negative statement about these two nouns:

Er ist ein Mann. (He is a man) — Sie ist kein Mann. (She is not a/no man.)

Ich habe eine Katze. (I have a cat.) — Ich habe keine Katze. (I have no cat.)

Here are the endings of the indefinite article so far:

masc neut fem plural

nominative ein ein eine ---

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masc neut
Negatives fem plural

accusative einen ein eine ---

Here is the list of the respective kein forms:

masc neut fem plural

nominative kein kein keine keine

accusative keinen kein keine keine

Kein is also used for negating nouns that have no article: Er hat Brot. (He has bread.) versus
Er hat kein Brot. (He has no bread.).

As a general rule:

If you can use "not a/no" in English, use kein.

If you need to use "not", use nicht.

Nicht vs. Nichts

Nicht is an adverb and is useful for negations. On the other hand, nichts (nothing/anything) is
a pronoun and its meaning is different from that of nicht.

Ich esse nicht. (I do not eat.)

Ich esse nichts. (I eat nothing.)

Using nicht simply negates a fact, and is less overarching than nichts. For example, Der
Schüler lernt nicht. (The student does not learn.) is less extreme than Der Schüler lernt
nichts. (The student does not learn anything.).

Keiner, keine, keines

In German, "nobody" can be expressed in several ways.

As long as it refers to people, niemand works just fine:

Niemand schläft. (Nobody sleeps.)

There is also keiner. It changes endings like the definite articles:

https://www.duolingo.com/skill/de/Negatives/tips-and-notes 2/3
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masc. neut.
Negatives fem. plural

nominative der das die die

accusative den das die die

masc. neut. fem. plural

nominative keiner keines keine keine

accusative keinen keines keine keine

For now, we teach only the default version (which is masculine in German):

Keiner schläft. (None of them sleeps.)

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