Negative words in Russian are words beginning with ни- transcribed ni- and не- transcribed nye- and serve a similar function as negative words in English: to negate a statement. For example:
- НиктоTranscription: niKTOTranslation: nobody
- НечегоTranscription: NYEchivaTranslation: nothing
These words may have familiar translations, but in Russian, we use them a little differently. Where in English, it would be officially incorrect to say “I will never not tell nobody nothing about it” — that is a word-by-word translation of what Russians would say!
As you can see, negative words, such as “never,” “nobody,” and “nothing,” play an important role in Russian. In this post, we’ll take you through how to form them, when to use them, and how to use many of them in the same sentence. Follow me, and you’ll find out.
How to form negative words in Russian?
In Russian, negative words that are equivalent to words like “nothing” or “nowhere” in English can either be formed by adding ни- transcribed ni or не- transcribed nye- in front of a question word. We’ll talk about when to use each type a little further down, but first let’s cover the forms of these words. Let’s have a look!
How to form negative words beginning with ни- (ni-)?
The majority of Russian negative words are formed by putting ни- transcribed ni in front of a question word like кто transcribed ktomeaning who где transcribed gdyemeaning where, or как transcribed kakmeaning how, so if you know those in Russian already, you will have no trouble forming negative words yourself.
Here is the full list of them (in the nominative case where applicable):
| Negative word | Example |
|---|---|
никто Transcription: niKTO Translation: nobody | Никто не пришёл. Transcription: niKTO nye priSHYOL Translation: Nobody came. |
ничто Transcription: niSHTO Translation: nothing | Ничто не вечно. Transcription: niSHTO nye VYECHna Translation: Nothing lasts forever. |
никакой Transcription: nikaKOY Translation: no / none / not any | Какой костюм тебе нравится? - Никакой. Transcription: niKTkaKOY kasTYOOM tiBYE NRAvitsa? - nikaKOY Translation: Which suit do you like? - None. |
ничей Transcription: niCHEY Translation: nobody’s | Чей это стул? - Ничей. Transcription: chey Eta stool? - niCHEY Translation: Whose chair is this? - Nobody’s. |
никак Transcription: niKAK Translation: by no means / (in) no way | Я никак не мог приехать. Transcription: ya niKAK ni mok priYEkhat Translation: There was no way I could come. |
нисколько Transcription: nisKOLka Translation: none / not at all | Я нисколько не устал. Transcription: ya niSKOLka nye usTAL Translation: I am not at all tired. |
никогда Transcription: nikagDA Translation: never | Никогда не говори никогда. Transcription: nikagDA nye gavaREE nikagDA Translation: Never say never. |
нигде Transcription: niGDYE Translation: (at) nowhere | Её нигде нет. Transcription: yeYO niGDYE nyet Translation: She is nowhere to be found. |
никуда Transcription: nikooDA Translation: (to) nowhere | Он никуда не ушёл. Transcription: on nikooDA nye ooSHOl Translation: He did not go anywhere. |
ниоткуда Transcription: niatKOOda Translation: from nowhere | Ничто не берётся из ниоткуда. Transcription: niSHTO nye byeRYOtsya iz niatKOOda Translation: Nothing comes from nowhere. |
Do these words have more than one form?
Никак meaning by no means, нисколько meaning not at all, никогда meaning never, нигде meaning nowhere, никуда meaning nowhere, ниоткуда meaning from nowhere do not change forms, as they are adverbs.
Никто meaning nobody and ничто meaning nothing are marked for case.
Никакой meaning no and ничей meaning nobody's act like full adjectives, and so are marked to reflect the case, number, and gender of the noun they describe.
To see all of the endings for Russian negative words, check out our chart at the bottom of the page!
How to form negative words beginning with не- (nye-)?
The following negative words in Russian can be formed by adding не- transcribed nye- in front of question words.
| Negative word | Example |
|---|---|
некого Transcription: NYEkavo Translation: nobody | Некого cпросить. Transcription: NYEkavo spraSEET Translation: There is nobody to ask. |
нечего Transcription: NYEchiva Translation: nothing | Дома есть было нечего. Transcription: DOma YEst BYla NYEchiva Translation: There was nothing to eat at home. |
негде Transcription: NYEgdye Translation: nowhere (about location) | Нам негде сегодня ночевать. Transcription: nam NYEgdye siVOdnya nacheVAT Translation: We have nowhere to sleep tonight. |
некуда Transcription: NYEkooda Translation: nowhere (about direction) | Тебе некуда идти. Transcription: tyeBYE NYEkooda itTEE Translation: You have nowhere to go. |
неоткуда Transcription: NYEatkooda Translation: from nowhere | Мне неоткуда взять денег. Transcription: mnye NYEatkuda vzyat DEnyek Translation: I have nowhere to get money (from). |
некогда Transcription: NYEkagda Translation: (there is) no time | Нам сейчас некогда. Transcription: nam syeyCHAS NYEkagda Translation: We have no time now. |
незачем Transcription: NYEzachem Translation: (there is) no reason, no need | Вам незачем беспокоиться. Transcription: vam NYEzachem byespaKOitsya Translation: You have no reason to worry. |
As we saw above, while most of the negative words starting with не- function as adverbs and never change, некого meaning nobody and нечего meaning nothing look and behave like nouns and have different endings in different cases. These forms can be seen in our negative words ending chart as well.
The final two negative words, некогда meaning no time and незачем meaning no reason do not change forms. They are always nominative and are only used in impersonal sentences (the ones without a clear subject).
How to use Russian negative words with prepositions?
When you use Russian negative pronouns after prepositions they are “broken” so that the negative prefix comes before the preposition instead of attaching directly to the question word, like this:
ни/не
preposition
question word
The negative words that follow this pattern are:
никто meaning nobody
ничто meaning nothing
нникакой meaning no/none/not any
некого meaning nobody
нечего meaning nothing
When to form negative words with ни- vs. не-?
In Russian, negative words with ни- transcribed ni- can only be used if не transcribed nyemeaning not or a negative word with не- transcribed nye- is present or implied elsewhere in the sentence. This is because, where negative words with не- transcribed nye- actually turn a positive sentence negative, negatives with ни- transcribed ni- only emphasize or intensify negation.
Compare:
- Мне нечего есть.Transcription: mnye NYEchiva yestTranslation: I have nothing to eatHere we use the не- form because it is the only negative word in the sentence.
- Я ничего не ел.Transcription: ya nichiVO nye yelTranslation: I haven’t eaten anything.Here we can use the ни- form because the sentence was already made negative by не.
Multiple negation: Can you use more than one negative word in a sentence?
In Russian, you can use as many negative words with ни- transcribed ni- in a sentence as you want, as long as one use of не- transcribed nye- is present in the sentence.
The word with не- transcribed nye- will make the sentence negative, but using more negative words with ни- transcribed ni- can intensify the negation. Most commonly the negative word with не will just be the word не on its own, used before the verb. For example:
Remember the example we used at the very beginning of this post?
Fun facts about Russian negative words
Some Russian negative pronouns have special meanings, for example:
Ничья transcribed niCHYAmeaning nobody's can mean “a tie” or “a draw” in sports.
Ничего transcribed nichiVOmeaning nothing is often used in the meaning “it’s okay” to reassure or calm somebody down, or “never mind.”
- Ничего, все наладится!Transcription: nichiVO, fsyo naLAditsyaTranslation: It’s ok, everything will work out!
- Что ты хотел? - O, ничего.Transcription: shto ен khaTYEL? - O, nichiVOTranslation: What did you want? - Oh, nothing / never mind.
Никакой transcribed nikaKOYmeaning no/none may also mean:
“dead tired”
Он после работы приходил никакой.Transcription: on POSlye raBOty prikhaDEEL nikaKOYTranslation: He came from work dead tired.“of no talent or skill”
Художник из него никакой.Transcription: khooDOZHnik iz niVO nikaKOYTranslation: He is no artist. / He has no artistic talent.
Не за что! transcribed nye za shtameaning for nothing is a typical reply in Russian to Спасибо! transcribed spaSEEbameaning Thank you!, so basically it means, “You are welcome!”
To sum up
In this post we discussed how to form negative words in Russian:
You can add ни- transcribed ni- and не- transcribed nye- to question words to form negative words.
Some of these words change forms, some do not.
While не- transcribed nye- is a purely negative element, ни- transcribed ni- is an intensifier
As long as there is a не- in a sentence (or when it is implied), you can add a virtually unlimited number of negative words with ни- transcribed ni-.
Ready to put Russian negative words into practice? Check out the activities and study sheet below!
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