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Je n'ai trouvé qu'un abri basique, sans chaleur ni lumière.

Je n'ai trouvé qu'un abri basique, sans chaleur ni lumière.
I only found a basic shelter, without warmth or light.
From Lesson 360:Negative coordination (sans... ni...)·French

Questions & Answers about Je n'ai trouvé qu'un abri basique, sans chaleur ni lumière.

Why do we use ni here instead of ou for "or"?
When you list multiple things after the preposition sans (without), French requires you to use ni instead of ou for the second item. You can think of it as saying "without warmth nor light."
Why are there no articles before chaleur and lumière?
When expressing a complete lack of something with sans, indefinite articles (un, une, des) and partitive articles (du, de la, de l') are dropped. Since you would normally use the partitive for uncountable things like warmth (de la chaleur) and light (de la lumière), they disappear entirely here.
How do I know where to place the que in ne... que?
The que in this restrictive structure goes immediately before the specific element you are restricting. Here, it is placed right before un abri because the shelter is the only thing you found. The ne goes before the conjugated verb (ai) as usual.
Could I use sans aucune chaleur ni lumière to make it stronger?
Yes! If you want to emphasize the total lack of warmth and light, you can add aucun or aucune (depending on the gender of the first noun). Because chaleur is feminine, you would say sans aucune chaleur ni lumière (meaning "without any warmth or light").

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