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何も〜ない details

nothing + write + not

nani mo kakanai

nothing; not anything — 何 plus も under a negative predicate

meaning: not write anything

冷蔵庫れいぞうこなにはいってないよ。ものこう。

reizouko, nani mo haittenai yo. kaimono ikou.

There's nothing in the fridge — let's go shopping. casual

あさからずっといそがしくて、まだなにべていません。

asa kara zutto isogashikute, mada nani mo tabete imasen.

I've been busy since morning and haven't eaten anything yet. neutral

  • colloquial

Examples

nothing; not anything — 何 under a negative predicate denies every candidate at once, most often as the verb's object

冷蔵庫れいぞうこなにはいってないよ。ものこう。

reizouko, nani mo haittenai yo. kaimono ikou.

There's nothing in the fridge — let's go shopping. casual

あさからずっといそがしくて、まだなにべていません。

asa kara zutto isogashikute, mada nani mo tabete imasen.

I've been busy since morning and haven't eaten anything yet. neutral

部屋へやにはつくえひとつあるだけで、ほかにはなにもなかった。

heya ni wa tsukue ga hitotsu aru dake de, hoka ni wa nani mo nakatta.

There was just one desk in the room and nothing else. neutral

そのけんについては、まだなにうかがっておりません。

sono ken ni tsuite wa, mada nani mo ukagatte orimasen.

I have not heard anything about that matter yet. formal

Formation

Variant notes

Notes

が and を both drop before も, but the other case particles survive it:
なににも使つかわない, なにともえない.

Related patterns

Similar

  • The same frame over a different question word, and they divide the world rather than compete — 何も ranges over things and 誰も over people, so なにえない reports a view with nothing in it where だれえない reports one with nobody in it; neither takes the other's referent.

  • 少しも denies the DEGREE of a predicate, so it scales any adjective (すこしもいたくない); 何も denies an ARGUMENT, so it reaches an adjective only where that adjective has a thing to empty (なにわるくない) and never scales one — for a body part the question word is どこ rather than 何 (どこもいたくない, ×なにいたくない).

  • 何も denies the things a verb acts on, どこにも the places it happens in, and the two stack in one clause (どこにもなにいていない); where 何も needs the verb to have a thing to empty, どこにも needs it to have a location.

Lookalikes

  • Identical も before a negative, different host — 何もしない takes the question word 何 and denies every possible act, while もしない hangs も on one verb's masu-stem and denies that single expected act; a reader who parses 何もしない as the second reading loses the "at all" entirely.