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La chambre est nue, sans lit ni chaise.

La chambre est nue, sans lit ni chaise.
The bedroom is bare, without a bed or a chair.
From Lesson 356:Negative coordination (sans... ni...)·French

Questions & Answers about La chambre est nue, sans lit ni chaise.

Why do we use ni here instead of ou for "or"?
The preposition sans (without) creates a negative context. In French, when you list multiple things in a negative context, you use ni (neither/nor) instead of ou (or) or et (and).
Why are there no articles before lit and chaise? Shouldn't it be sans un lit ni une chaise?
When using the sans... ni... structure, you must drop indefinite articles (un, une, des) and partitive articles (du, de la, de l'). You simply use the bare nouns.
Could I say sans lit et sans chaise instead?
Yes, repeating sans before each noun is grammatically correct and often used for emphasis. However, sans [noun] ni [noun] is a much more elegant, concise way to link two missing items without repeating the preposition.
Why does nue have an -e at the end?
Nue is the feminine form of the adjective nu (bare, naked). It takes an -e here to agree with the feminine subject of the sentence, la chambre.

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