Kein & Nicht, when to use them
Kein is used to negate noun without any article, or with an indefinite article. In place of a noun, to mean 'none', when the sugject is already known.
Nicht is used to negate a verb, an adjective or adverb, a proper noun, a possessive adjective, and when a definite article is present.
Is this all right?
8 Comments
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I think this discussion would be of interest to you: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/3936107
I was having problems myself...so i went to the tips and hints, and looked at some other things and made myself this guide. hope it helps/is understandable
Nicht USE NICHT when negating:
Definite article -Noun {der, die, das + Noun person/place/thing} - position before definite article noun Possessive Pronoun-Noun [mein, dein, sein, + Noun} - position before possessive pronoun noun VERB! {negate verb} - position before verb Adverb/adverbial phrase - position before adverb Adjective Terminal in Sentence - position before terminal adjective
V2 Sentence extremely common in germanic language [Pos1 ]<>[Pos2 ={ (conjugated:subject) Verb]<>[Pos(3)-->Pos(#)={(# remaining elements)/Pos(3+#)={("nicht")]<>[Pos(4+#^)={( def-art-N/poss-pro-N/Verb:2nd or Inf/Adverb-phrase/Terminal Adj)]
This V2 sentence may cause Nicht to come last if the only other 2 elements are the verb (which HAS to go into position 2) and the subject/object going into position 1
ah duolingo just reformatted and messed up my line breaks...making that way less clear cut. Arrrg. >:(
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kein ...or with an indefinite article.
Um... I'm not quite sure what you mean by that... (I'm kein expert!)
It might be correct, but i can't think of a time when you use kein with ein.
Everything else looks right to me :)
I don't think she wanted to say that "kein" is used together with "ein", but "kein" is used to build the negation of a word headed by "ein". E.g. "ein Brot", negated "kein Brot". And that is correct. In most cases you can think of "kein" as "not a" or "not any".
