To say something has stopped — "I don't work there anymore," "there's no bread left" — Dutch adds meer to its negator. The good news is that you already know the hard part: the choice between niet meer and geen meer is the same niet/geen choice you make for plain negation. If you'd negate the bare sentence with niet, you say niet meer; if you'd negate it with geen, you say geen meer. This page shows how that carry-over works and, crucially, where meer goes in the sentence — because geen meer wraps around the noun in a way English doesn't prepare you for.
The choice carries over from niet/geen
Start with the sentence you'd negate normally, then just add meer to express "anymore / no longer / no more left":
- Negates with niet → niet meer
- Negates with geen → geen meer
That's the whole principle. Because niet handles verbs, adjectives and definite nouns, niet meer covers "don't do X anymore." Because geen handles indefinite nouns, geen meer covers "no X left / no more X."
Ik werk hier niet meer.
I don't work here anymore. (verb → niet → niet meer)
Ik heb geen geld meer.
I have no money left. (indefinite noun → geen → geen ... meer)
Niet meer: "not anymore / no longer"
Use niet meer with verbs, adjectives, adverbs and definite nouns — everything in niet's territory. Niet meer sits where niet would, with meer immediately after it:
Hij woont hier niet meer.
He doesn't live here anymore. (verb → niet meer)
De melk is niet meer koud.
The milk isn't cold anymore. (adjective → niet meer)
Ik wil die film niet meer zien.
I don't want to see that film anymore. (definite object 'die film' → niet meer before the infinitive)
Ze belt me niet meer.
She doesn't call me anymore.
Notice that niet meer behaves exactly like niet for placement: it lands before a clause-final infinitive (niet meer zien) and before a predicate adjective (niet meer koud).
Geen meer: "no more / none left" — and the wrap
Use geen ... meer with indefinite nouns (the geen cases: een-nouns, bare plurals, mass nouns). Here's the part to drill: geen and meer wrap around the noun. Geen goes in front of the noun (where the article would be) and meer goes after it:
geen + NOUN + meer
Er is geen brood meer.
There's no bread left. (geen brood meer)
We hebben geen koffie meer.
We've run out of coffee. (geen koffie meer)
Ik heb geen sigaretten meer.
I have no cigarettes left. (bare plural → geen sigaretten meer)
This split position is the single most common error for English speakers, because English keeps "no more" together ("no more bread"). Dutch pulls them apart around the noun. Say it as a unit — geen — koffie — meer — until the wrap feels automatic.
Sorry, er zijn geen kaartjes meer voor de voorstelling.
Sorry, there are no tickets left for the show.
The nuance worth noticing: geen meer doesn't just mean "no X" — it means "no X left," implying there used to be some and now the supply has run out. Ik heb geen geld is "I have no money" (a flat state); Ik heb geen geld meer is "I have no money left" (it's all gone). That little meer adds the sense of a depleted quantity, which is why it so often answers a question about what's still available.
Wil je nog wat wijn? — Nee, er is geen wijn meer, helaas.
Do you want some more wine? — No, there's no wine left, unfortunately.
Contrast with nog: "still" vs "not anymore"
Niet meer / geen meer is the natural negative answer to a sentence with nog ("still / yet"). The pair nog ↔ niet meer maps a state continuing versus a state that has ended:
| Positive (nog = still) | Negative (no longer / none left) |
|---|---|
| Ik werk hier nog. (I still work here.) | Ik werk hier niet meer. (I don't work here anymore.) |
| Er is nog brood. (There's still bread.) | Er is geen brood meer. (There's no bread left.) |
Woon je daar nog? — Nee, ik woon daar niet meer.
Do you still live there? — No, I don't live there anymore.
Is er nog melk? — Nee, er is geen melk meer.
Is there still milk? — No, there's no milk left.
So nog says the situation is ongoing; niet meer / geen meer says it has come to an end. Choosing between the two negative forms is, once again, just the niet/geen question with meer attached.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ik heb niet meer geld.
Incorrect — 'geld' is an indefinite mass noun, so it takes geen, wrapped: 'geen geld meer'.
✅ Ik heb geen geld meer.
I have no money left.
❌ Er is geen meer brood.
Incorrect word order — 'meer' goes after the noun: geen brood meer.
✅ Er is geen brood meer.
There's no bread left.
❌ Hij woont hier geen meer.
Incorrect — negating a verb uses niet, not geen: 'niet meer'.
✅ Hij woont hier niet meer.
He doesn't live here anymore.
❌ We hebben niet koffie meer.
Incorrect — 'koffie' is an indefinite mass noun, so geen wraps it: geen koffie meer.
✅ We hebben geen koffie meer.
We've run out of coffee.
❌ Ik wil niet meer die film zien.
Word-order slip — 'niet meer' sits after the definite object: 'die film niet meer zien'.
✅ Ik wil die film niet meer zien.
I don't want to see that film anymore.
Key Takeaways
- "No longer / none left" = negator
- meer
- niet meer for verbs, adjectives and definite nouns ("don't do X anymore").
- geen ... meer for indefinite nouns, and it wraps the noun: geen koffie meer, geen brood meer.
- The positive counterpart is nog ("still"): nog = ongoing, niet meer / geen meer = ended.
- niet meer keeps niet's placement (before clause-final infinitives and predicate adjectives).
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- Dutch Negation: OverviewA1 — The big picture for negating in Dutch — the two negators niet and geen, when each is used, where niet goes in the sentence, and the family of negative words like nooit, niets and niemand.
- Niet vs Geen: The Core Negation ChoiceA1 — The single test that decides Dutch negation — geen for indefinite nouns, niet for everything else — worked through with clear contrasts and the errors English speakers make.
- Negative Words: Niets, Niemand, Nergens, NooitA2 — The Dutch words that carry their own built-in 'not' — niets/niks, niemand, nergens and nooit — and the one-negator-per-clause rule that means you never add niet on top of them.
- Al, Pas, Nog: Already, Only, StillB1 — The famous Dutch triad for talking about time relative to expectation: al (already, earlier than expected), pas (only / not until, later than expected), and nog (still / yet, the situation continues). Covers the al–pas mirror, pas vs alleen (only-in-time vs only-in-quantity), and the nog niet / niet meer / nog steeds family — the exact words English speakers most often get wrong.