"I drink neither tea nor milk."

Translation: Я не пью ни чай, ни молоко.

[Dotters]

I answered "Я не пью ни чая ни молока," thinking of the "нет + genitive" rule, but after a bit of reading on the subject it looks like the "ни ... ни" structure doesn't call for genitive at all. Yet the site gave me a correct answer! Is it because of the "some quantity" usage of genitive? And if so, wouldn't it be strange using it to express that you're not drinking milk and tea at all? If anyone can clear up my confusion, it would be much appreciated. :-)

[mosfet07]

Yes, the "ни ... ни" is used here to emphasize that he doesn't drink these drinks at all. It will be strange to use it with the genitive which means "some" in such a context. The same is for Partitive.

[freymuth]

Is it possible that Я не пью ни чая ни молока can mean that he's not drinking tea or milk at the moment? I'm curious whether there's a difference between this and Я не пью ни чай ни молоко.

[mosfet07]

I wouldn't use "... не ... ни ... ни ..." with genitive.

"у ... нет ... ни ... ни ...", on the other hand, do require genitive: У него нет ни чая, ни молока.

[joseperus]

Oh, how can I give you more than one vote up?! Thank you!

[nielsmaarup]

We are the knights who say ни!

[sassysasha07]

The subject in Russian is often times not necessary. This is a prime example where the conjugated verb "пить" already tells us that the subject is "I" or "Я". Thus, you can omit the subject altogether.

[mosfet07]

You're confusing Russian with Latin, I suppose.
Without the pronoun this sentence looks incomplete.

[sassysasha07]

As a higher-level speaker of Russian and living in Russia, I can assure you that my Russian friends never use the subject in this sentence, or any sentences of this simplicity to be fair. I guess by proper standards the subject should be there, but it is not necessary I don't think.

[d.keyten]

As a native russian I can assure you that it depends. For example if I introduce myself I would use "Я", but if I am asked about that I would not.

[BsQ1v]

Do I need to put нет here if ни translates to neither?
Я пью ни чай ни молоко.
Does that translate incorrectly?

[OceansMagnolia]

Why is я пью не ... not accepted?

[Aleks.Mr]

It has a different meaning.

Я не пью чай. I am not drinking tea.

Я пью не чай. Literally "I am drinking not tea". What I am drinking is not tea.

Я пью не чай, а кофе. I am drinking coffee, not tea.

[JerD10]

Can пью and не be switched? In an earlier exercise it was у меня не ни ... but here it is у не пью ни...

So I'm confused about placement or if it even matters. Seems like the same sentiment either way, but I got marked wrong.

[ZvanJo]

If I understand correctly не always comes before the verb. So in sentences like I don't eat ... , you would say Я не ем ... . However, when saying У меня есть ... you are literally saying "with me, there is ... " So есть being the verb you would say У меня не есть ... . Except in Russian you always skip words that are redundant, so У меня не есть ... becomes У меня нет ...

[dreamerkid]

я пью ни чай ни молоко - I typed the ни after drink... is this understandable or is it incorrect? Thanks for the help! Good luck studying!

[JanetGidle]

I just got an incorrect for doing that, although someone commented that its also correct.

[Pirate241062]

I think they're looking for the не in front of пью because Russian uses double and triple negatives

[ellen978534]

Another ни... Ни... Response in this lesson (i have neither bread nor butter) does seem to rrquite the genitive case. Here i woukd expect to need it based on thr negation rule. I sed other responses saying that here it is because you dont drink it at all, rather than not having some... Is this the reason?

[Mantrid_Brizon]

Did anyone else get this wrong because they thought "I not drink neither" sounds comically foreign and wrote "я пью нет ни..."? I have seen that format (нет ни... ни) accepted in the " I don't have a dog or cat" translation.

[Eric0213]

I answered the question correctly, but am curious. Can you also say, "я не пью ни чай или молоко" as you would in English, "I don't drink neither tea or milk."

[JanetGidle]

Dont and neither in your English sentence is a double negative and really sounds uneducated. . How about I dont drink tea ir milk would be typical. If you say I drink neither tea. You must say nor milk.
Sorry. Can't say if или would work or not.

[Caleb590529]

You wouldn't say that in English unless you wanted to say that you are not against drinking tea and milk

[poptartrainboww]

I wrote "я пью нет ни чай ни молоко" but it says the correct answer is "я не пью ни чай, ни молоко". Are mine really incorrect? I've seen before the structure of "у меня пью нет ни...".

[Wrathvoid]

How do i know when its "пью" Or "Пьёт"

[Pirate241062]

They are different conjugations of the same verb. Пью is used for first person singular present tense (I drink, I am drinking). Пьёт is the third person singular present tense (he/she/it drinks, he/she/it is drinking).

[poptartrainboww]

Пью means “i drink” while пьёт means “he/she/it drinks”. Basically it’s a conjugated form from of the verb “пить” that means to drink.

[mandeepsingh1998]

Why чай not чая and why not молока why its молоко?

[joseperus]

Because with 'не' you don't have to use genitive, only with 'нет' (you don't have 'нет' here, but just 'не'). You can read the first comment by Dotters to read a further explanation.