Breakdown of Wo ist der Kompass? Ich sehe keinen.
ich
I
sein
to be
wo
where
sehen
to see
keiner
none / not one (sister forms: keins, keine)
der Kompass
the compass
Questions & Answers about Wo ist der Kompass? Ich sehe keinen.
Why does the second sentence end with keinen instead of kein?
Here, keinen is acting as a pronoun, meaning it completely replaces the noun. It refers back to der Kompass, which is a masculine noun. Since it is the direct object of the verb sehe (the thing you don't see), it must be in the accusative case. The masculine accusative ending is -en, giving us keinen.
If I wanted to say "I see one" instead of "I see none", how would I say that?
You would use the indefinite pronoun einen. Just like keinen, it needs the masculine accusative ending because it refers to the masculine noun Kompass. So, "I see one" translates to "Ich sehe einen."
What would the pronoun be if we were looking for a neuter object, like the book (das Buch)?
If you were looking for das Buch, the negative pronoun would be keins (or keines). For example: "Wo ist das Buch? Ich sehe keins." For neuter nouns, the pronoun takes an -s or -es ending, which is different from the regular articles (ein and kein) that have no ending for neuter words.
Could I say "Ich sehe ihn nicht" instead?
Yes, but the meaning changes slightly. "Ich sehe ihn nicht" means "I don't see it" (referring to the specific compass you are looking for). "Ich sehe keinen" means "I see none" or "I don't see one" (meaning no compasses are visible to you at all).
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