"There is nothing on the bridge."
Translation:На мосту ничего нет.
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Yes, it is possible. "Ничего" gets emphasized this way, usually to express disappointment.
It is possible to make it work in a certain situation with a certain intonation but in this course we try to stick to a more common word order ("neutral word order").
If you don't mind me asking...because usually Russian word order and syntax are pretty flexible due to the case system...What would "Нет ничего на мосту," mean compared to " На мосту ничего нет"?
Would placing "На мосту" at the end of the sentence stress the bridge over the fact that there's nothing on it? In English this could happen, too. I can only imagine some guy stressing the wrong words: "There's nothing ON THE BRIDGE." And technically it's a grammatically perfect sentence, true, but it sounds hilarious with the wrong intonation.
Sorry, just trying to understand the deeper complexities of Russian.
Нет ничего на мосту would simply sound slightly annoyed (as if you were asked to search the bridge once again).
Does на + accusative here imply that there is nothing moving on the bridge or there is not even something stationary on the bridge? I thought when something is stationary the prepositional case is used with prepositions like на and only if there is movement or if something is acted upon one uses accusative.
It's на+locative here (see @Shady_arc's comment in this thread). And "nothing" as much as in English refers to "none of the things that might be of interest" within the context where the sentence is used.
На + accusative (на мост) would mean direction (onto the bridge), like "let's go there," or "look there," or something like that.
The correct sentence is in the title. "This is not a nothing, on the bridge" may make some sense somewhere but doesn't qualify as close enough.
Still not sure why На мосту нет ничего. Is not acceptable . In retrospect, ничего нет is probably more usual
Why, "нет," and not, "не," ещё очень сложно понимать потому что иногда не и иногда нет
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What about "На мосту не ничего"? Does this mean anything/is it grammatically correct? Does that mean that there is not nothing on the bridge? AKA there is something on the bridge? If not, how would you say there is 'something' on the bridge?
For the same reason it is на столе, в Москве, на кровати, на тарелке etc.
However, some short consonant-ending masculine nouns have this different form with в, на or both (in the spatial meaning). It always ends in a stressed -У (-Ю) and, for the most part, is consistently used by native speakers: на берегу, на полу, в шкафу, в 1994 году, в пруду, в аэропорту, в лесу, на мосту, на свету.
Russian has a little over a hundred nouns like that. Also, we have over a dozen feminine nouns like дверь, which have a stressed -и with в, на or both. Instead of an unstressed one, you know... В крови, на двери, в тени, на оси, в грязи etc.