The Particle 'nici' (not even, neither, nor)

The little word nici is one of the busiest in the Romanian negation system, and the cleanest way to understand it is to see it as the negative mirror image of și. The particle și normally means "and", but as a focus particle it means "even / too": și el ("even he / he too"). Flip the polarity and you get nici: nici el ("not even he / not him either"). From that single insight all of nici's jobs fall out — "not even", "neither … nor", and "me neither" — and so does its grammar: because nici is a negative item, whenever it sits on an argument of the verb, the verb still has to carry nu.

Use 1: "not even" — scalar focus

Nici marks the lowest, most extreme point on a scale — the thing you'd least expect to be excluded. "He didn't even say hello" means: of all the minimal things he could have done, he failed at the smallest one. This is the scalar "not even", and it often picks up the reinforcer măcar to give nici măcar ("not even").

Note that măcar on its own is positive ("at least": măcar un pic "at least a little"). It is nici that supplies the negation; nici măcar simply stacks the reinforcer onto the negative particle.

Use 2: "neither … nor" — the correlative

Doubled, nici … nici is the correlative coordinator "neither … nor". It links two (or more) items, all of them excluded. As a negative coordinator it still triggers nu on the verb — Romanian does not let nici … nici negate the clause by itself.

This is the negative counterpart of the positive correlative și … și ("both … and"): și Ana, și Mihai au venit ("both Ana and Mihai came") flips to nici Ana, nici Mihai nu au venit. The fuller treatment of correlative pairs lives on the correlative conjunctions page; here the point is the polarity flip and the obligatory nu.

Use 3: "me neither" — agreeing with a negative

When you want to echo someone's negative statement — English "me neither / nor do I / I don't either" — Romanian uses nici + the pronoun. "Me neither" is nici eu. This is the negative answer to și eu ("me too"), which is the positive echo.

Notice in the first example that when the original statement is about what someone likes (a dative experiencer, îmi place), the echo uses the dative pronoun: nici mie ("me neither"), matching mie ("to me"), not nici eu. You echo in whatever case the original used.

The grammar: when nici is an argument, keep nu

Here is the rule that ties nici into the concord system. When nici attaches to an argument of the verb — a subject or object that is inside the clause — the verb must carry nu, just like nimic or nimeni.

When the nici-phrase is fronted to the front of the clause, the nu still stays on the verb — fronting never licenses dropping it:

The short echo Nici eu / Nici mie is the one case where there is no verb at all — it stands alone as a reply — so naturally there is no nu to add. The moment you expand it into a full clause, nu comes back: Nici eu nu merg ("I'm not going either").

nici before a vowel and in contractions

In rapid speech nici before a vowel-initial word is pronounced tightly, but it stays a separate word in writing: nici eu, nici acum, nici una (note: nici una here is the emphatic "not even one [feminine]", parallel to nici un — distinct from the one-word determiner nicio). Keep the spelling separate; only the negative determiner fuses into the single word niciun / nicio.

Common Mistakes

Putting the pronoun before the particle in "me neither":

Dropping nu when nici is on an argument:

Echoing a dative-experiencer verb with the wrong case:

Using și (positive 'too') in a negative context where nici is required:

Forgetting nu with the fronted correlative nici … nici:

Key Takeaways

• nici is the negative twin of the focus particle și: și el ("even he / he too") ↔ nici el ("not even he / not him either").
• Three jobs, one word: "not even" (scalar, often nici măcar), "neither … nor" (correlative nici … nici), and "me neither" (nici eu, or nici mie with dative verbs).
• When nici is on an argument (subject/object), the verb keeps nu — Nu vine nici Ion — and fronting (Nici Ion nu vine) doesn't change that.
• The standalone reply Nici eu / Nici mie has no verb, so no nu; expanded to a clause, nu returns (Nici eu nu merg).
• Word order is fixed: the particle first, the pronoun second — Nici eu, never *eu nici.