The companion page showed you the "some-" faculty of a question word: 誰 + か = someone. Here is its opposite number. Attach も instead of か, and pair it with a negative verb, and the question word becomes a total negation: 誰も来なかった "no one came," 何もない "there's nothing," どこにも行かない "I'm not going anywhere." Where か opens a single possibility, も sweeps up every possibility, and the negative predicate cancels the whole set. The one iron rule — the one thing English speakers forget — is that this も demands a negative verb. It is half of a bracket that a negative must close.
The formula: question word + も + negative
も added to a question word builds the "no-" meaning, but only in a negative sentence. The も‑word and the negative verb are a matched pair — neither works without the other.
| Question word |
| Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 誰 (who) | 誰も…ない | daremo … nai | no one |
| 何 (what) | 何も…ない | nanimo … nai | nothing |
| どこ (where) | どこにも…ない | doko ni mo … nai | nowhere |
| どれ (which) | どれも…ない | doremo … nai | none of them |
| どちら (which of two) | どちらも…ない | dochira mo … nai | neither |
そんなこと、誰も知らないよ。
sonna koto, daremo shiranai yo
Nobody knows anything about that.
暗くて何も見えない。
kurakute nanimo mienai
It's dark and I can't see anything.
今日は疲れたから、どこへも行かなかった。
kyō wa tsukareta kara, doko e mo ikanakatta
I was tired today, so I didn't go anywhere.
Why the negative is mandatory
This is the number‑one error for English speakers, and it comes from a real structural difference. English packs the negation into the pronoun: nobody, nothing, nowhere are themselves negative, so the verb stays positive — "nobody came." Japanese does the opposite. The pronoun 誰も is not negative on its own; it is a universal — "everyone, every last one" — and the negation lives in the verb. 誰も + 来なかった literally reads "every‑one … did‑not‑come," and only the two together produce "no one came."
家には誰もいなかった。
ie ni wa daremo inakatta
There was no one at home.
冷蔵庫に何もないんだけど。
reizōko ni nanimo nai n da kedo
There's nothing in the fridge, you know.
Particle insertion: どこにも, どこへも, 誰にも
With 誰も and 何も the case particle drops (誰も, not 誰がも; 何も, not 何をも). But when the meaning needs a location or direction particle, that particle wedges in between the question word and も: どこ + に + も, どこ + へ + も, 誰 + に + も. This is the flip side of the か page's rule, and it trips people the same way.
鍵がどこにも見つからない。
kagi ga doko ni mo mitsukaranai
I can't find my keys anywhere.
このことは誰にも言わないで。
kono koto wa dare ni mo iwanaide
Don't tell anyone about this.
何も心配いらないよ。
nanimo shinpai iranai yo
There's nothing to worry about.
The affirmative side: 疑問詞 + も = "every-"
Here is the honest wrinkle. も is not inherently negative. With a positive verb, question word + も swings the other way and means "every- / all, no exception." The universal quantifier is doing the same sweeping job — it just is not being cancelled this time.
連休だから、どこも人でいっぱいだった。
renkyū da kara, dokomo hito de ippai datta
It was a long weekend, so everywhere was packed.
このお店のケーキ、どれもおいしいよ。
kono omise no kēki, doremo oishii yo
Every one of the cakes at this shop is delicious.
A案もB案も、どちらもいいと思う。
ē-an mo bī-an mo, dochira mo ii to omou
Plan A and plan B — I think both are good.
But there is a split you must respect: 誰も and 何も are the strict ones. For the "nobody / nothing" meaning they essentially always require a negative — 誰も positive is not "everyone" (that is みんな or 誰でも). It is the place and choice words — どこ, どれ, どちら — that comfortably go both ways: どこも can be "everywhere" (positive) or "nowhere" (どこにも…ない).
The か / も matched pair
Line the two faculties up and the system is complete. One question word, two particles, opposite meanings — and the difference rides entirely on か vs も plus the verb's polarity:
さっき誰か来たよ。
sakki dareka kita yo
Someone came by earlier. (か — one unspecified person)
結局、誰も来なかった。
kekkyoku, daremo konakatta
In the end, no one came. (も + negative — the whole set, cancelled)
誰か来た and 誰も来なかった are the same skeleton with one particle swapped and the polarity flipped. Master that swap and you own both the "some-" and the "no-" corners of every question word. For the "some-" half, see 疑問詞 + か; for how the negation itself is built, see How Japanese says 'not'; and for も's everyday "also/too" life, see も: also, too.
Common mistakes
❌ 誰も来た。（「みんな来た」のつもりで）
Incorrect — 誰も with a positive verb is ungrammatical for 'everyone came'; use みんな来た.
✅ みんな来た。
minna kita
Everyone came.
❌ 朝から何も食べた。（「何も食べなかった」のつもりで）
Incorrect — 'I didn't eat anything' needs the negative; 何も with a positive verb doesn't produce 'not anything.'
✅ 朝から何も食べてない。
asa kara nanimo tabetenai
I haven't eaten anything since this morning.
❌ どこも鍵が見つからない。（「どこにも」のつもりで）
Incorrect for 'nowhere' — the location sense needs the particle に: どこにも.
✅ どこにも鍵が見つからない。
doko ni mo kagi ga mitsukaranai
I can't find my keys anywhere.
❌ 冷蔵庫に何かない。（「何もない」のつもりで）
Incorrect — the negative 'nothing' is 何も, not 何か; か is the affirmative 'something.'
✅ 冷蔵庫に何もない。
reizōko ni nanimo nai
There's nothing in the fridge.
The habit that fixes almost all of these: whenever you mean "no- / not any-," write the も‑word and make the verb negative. They travel together — you cannot ship one without the other.
Key takeaways
- Question word + も + negative verb = "no-": 誰も…ない (no one), 何も…ない (nothing), どこにも…ない (nowhere). The negative is mandatory.
- The negation lives in the verb, not the pronoun — 誰も is a universal ("every one"), cancelled to "no one" only by the negative.
- Particle insertion: どこにも, どこへも, 誰にも; but 誰も / 何も drop が/を.
- With a positive verb, place/choice words mean "every-" (どこも, どれも, どちらも); 誰も and 何も stay strict — for "nobody/nothing" they need the negative.
- か and も are the two faculties of one wh‑word: 誰か来た vs 誰も来なかった — the matched pair.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- 疑問詞 + か: だれか / なにか / どこかN4 — Glue か onto a question word and it stops asking and starts meaning 'some-': だれか someone, なにか something, どこか somewhere — the same particle that opens a question also opens an indefinite.
- How Japanese Says 'Not': OverviewN5 — The whole negation system at a glance — why Japanese has no word for 'not', and how verbs (〜ない), i-adjectives (〜くない), and nouns (じゃない) each morph into three parallel negative tracks that all end in ない.
- も: Also, Too, EitherN5 — How も means 'also/too' by replacing は/が/を outright, adds onto case particles like に and で, and flips to 'either/neither' under negation.