Ingen, Intet and Negative Quantifiers | Danish Grammar

Beyond the all-purpose negator ikke ("not"), Danish has a family of words that carry the negation built in: ingen (no/none), intet (no/nothing), ingenting (nothing), ingen steder (nowhere) and aldrig (never). The single most important thing to understand about them is that they already contain the negation — so you must not add ikke on top. Danish, like standard English and unlike Spanish or French, is a single-negation language: one negative word per clause does the whole job. This page shows you which form to use, the gender it agrees with, and the everyday ikke nogen paraphrase that natives often prefer.

The core principle: one negation per clause

Ingen, intet and friends are negative all by themselves. Stacking ikke with them produces a double negative that, in standard Danish, is simply wrong (it does not even read as emphatic — it reads as an error).

Jeg har ingen penge.

I have no money. (NOT 'jeg har ikke ingen penge')

Der er ingen hjemme.

There's no one home.

Hun siger aldrig noget.

She never says anything. (aldrig already negates; noget = 'anything')

That last example shows the partner principle: once you have a negative word in the clause, any later indefinite switches to its positive "any" form — noget ("anything"), not intet. English does exactly the same ("she never says anything," not "she never says nothing"). So a Danish clause has one negative slot, and everything downstream of it is "any-", not "no-".

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Danish allows only one negation per clause. If a clause already has ingen, intet, aldrig or ingen steder, do not add ikke — and any following indefinite becomes noget/nogen ("any"), not another negative.

Ingen — "no / none" for common gender and plurals

Ingen is the everyday "no / none." It is used with common-gender nouns (en-words) and with plurals of any gender. It also stands alone as a pronoun meaning "no one / nobody."

Use	Form	Example
common-gender noun	ingen	ingen bil (no car)
plural noun	ingen	ingen venner (no friends)
"no one" (pronoun)	ingen	Ingen kom. (No one came.)

Der var ingen mennesker på stranden.

There were no people on the beach.

Ingen vidste, hvad der var sket.

No one knew what had happened.

Jeg har ingen idé om, hvor han er.

I have no idea where he is.

Intet — "no / nothing" for the neuter, and formal

Intet is the neuter ("no" with an et-word) and also the pronoun "nothing." Crucially, intet belongs to a more formal or written register. In ordinary speech, Danes mostly avoid it in favour of ikke noget ("nothing / not any"), which we meet below.

Det er intet problem.

That's no problem. (neuter noun; intet sounds polished/formal)

Intet kunne stoppe hende.

Nothing could stop her. (literary/formal flavour)

Han har intet at skjule.

He has nothing to hide. (set, slightly elevated)

In casual conversation, Det er intet problem would more often come out as Det er ikke noget problem, and Intet kunne stoppe hende as Der var ikke noget, der kunne stoppe hende. Knowing intet lets you read it and use it in writing; knowing that it is formal stops you from sounding stiff in speech.

Ingenting, ingen steder, aldrig

Three more incorporated negatives round out the set:

ingenting — "nothing," the everyday spoken word (where intet is the formal one).
ingen steder — "nowhere" (literally "no places").
aldrig — "never."

Der er ingenting i køleskabet.

There's nothing in the fridge. (everyday, neutral)

Jeg kan ikke finde mine nøgler nogen steder.

I can't find my keys anywhere. (note: ikke + nogen steder, not 'ingen steder')

Vi fandt dem ingen steder.

We found them nowhere / we couldn't find them anywhere.

Han kommer aldrig til tiden.

He's never on time.

The keys example is instructive. With ikke already doing the negating, "anywhere" is nogen steder (the "any" form). Use ingen steder only when there is no other negator in the clause (Vi fandt dem ingen steder). This mirrors English "I can't find them anywhere" vs "I found them nowhere" — you don't say "I can't find them nowhere."

The everyday paraphrase: ikke nogen / ikke noget

Here is the nuance that learners almost never get taught. Ingen and intet have an equivalent built from ikke plus the indefinite: ikke nogen (= ingen) and ikke noget (= intet). These are not double negatives — nogen/noget here are the positive "any" forms, so the clause still has exactly one negation, carried by ikke.

Jeg har ikke nogen penge.

I don't have any money. (= Jeg har ingen penge)

Det er ikke noget problem.

That's not a problem. (= Det er intet problem, but everyday)

Why does this matter? Because Danish has a real stylistic preference for ikke nogen/noget in certain positions — especially in subordinate clauses and after a modal verb, where ingen/intet can sound heavy or awkward. Natives follow this unconsciously; learners, drilled on ingen, overuse it and sound bookish.

Jeg vil ikke have nogen problemer.

I don't want any problems. (after a modal: ikke nogen is far more natural than 'ingen')

Hun sagde, at hun ikke havde nogen tid.

She said she didn't have any time. (in a subordinate clause, ikke nogen flows better than 'ingen')

The reliable advice: in a main clause with a simple verb, ingen is clean and idiomatic (Jeg har ingen penge). After a modal (vil, kan, skal) or inside a that-clause, lean toward ikke nogen / ikke noget. And in everyday speech generally, ikke noget beats the formal intet.

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Memorise the equivalences: ingen = ikke nogen, intet = ikke noget. After a modal or in a subordinate clause, the ikke nogen/noget version usually sounds more natural — and in casual speech, ikke noget almost always beats the formal intet.

Common Mistakes

The errors here come from two sources: importing double negation from languages that allow it, and choosing the wrong form for the gender or register. (For the positive nogen/nogle counterparts, see choosing/nogen-vs-nogle.)

❌ Jeg har ikke ingen penge.

Incorrect — double negation. Use one negative: 'ingen' OR 'ikke nogen', not both.

✅ Jeg har ingen penge.

I have no money.

❌ Hun siger aldrig ingenting.

Incorrect — aldrig already negates; the following word must be the 'any' form.

✅ Hun siger aldrig noget.

She never says anything.

❌ Det er ingen problem.

Incorrect — problem is neuter (et problem), so it needs intet, not ingen.

✅ Det er intet problem. (formal) / Det er ikke noget problem. (everyday)

That's no problem.

❌ Jeg kan ikke finde dem ingen steder.

Incorrect — ikke already negates; the 'any' form is nogen steder.

✅ Jeg kan ikke finde dem nogen steder.

I can't find them anywhere.

❌ Jeg vil have intet i dag. (casual speech)

Stilted — intet is formal; everyday speech uses ikke noget.

✅ Jeg vil ikke have noget i dag.

I don't want anything today.

Key takeaways

The incorporated negatives already contain the negation — never add ikke on top (single-negation rule).
ingen = common-gender + plural ("no / none / no one"); intet = neuter ("no / nothing"), formal.
Everyday "nothing" is ingenting (spoken) or ikke noget; intet is the formal/written choice.
ingen = ikke nogen, intet = ikke noget — same meaning, and the ikke nogen/noget form is preferred after modals and in subordinate clauses.
After any negative, the next indefinite is the "any" form — noget/nogen/nogen steder, never a second negative.

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