"They have no one to respect."

[WillBennis1]

Why shouldn't this be "Nemají nikoho respektovat"?

[JanLyko]

The negative from "NO one" went to "NEmají".

[WillBennis1]

I get that but I don't get why given that Czech uses double negatives in contexts like this (I thought): "Nemají nic." Not, "Mají nic," And not, "Nemají něco." So to rephrase the question: why isn't the double negatives construct required in the above case, which seems to me almost identical to these other examples?

[JanLyko]

One possible reason is that "Nemají nikoho respektovat" is also a valid sentence with a different meaning - "They should not respect anyone".

[ion1122]

I believe it is mostly just Czech sentences that contain a ni- word that require a double negative. For example, "Nikoho nemá rad." (He likes nobody.)

The word "žádný" also requires a double negative. For example, "Nema žadné jídlo." (She has no food.)

But otherwise single negatives are OK, I believe. For example, "Nemá se o koho starat." (She has no one to look after.)

[jenda48]

Proč ne "Nikoho si neváží"

[VladaFu]

They do not respect anyone. Úplně odlišná věta.