Questions & Answers about Ich habe noch keine Antwort.
In this sentence, noch means “yet” in the sense of “up to now, but that may change in the future.”
- Ich habe noch keine Antwort.
→ You’re saying: Up to this moment, I don’t have an answer (but I expect or hope one will come later).
Literally, noch often means “still”, but in negative sentences like this, noch is usually translated as “yet”:
- Ich habe noch keine Antwort. → “I don’t have an answer yet.”
- Ich habe noch nicht gegessen. → “I haven’t eaten yet.”
So here, noch adds the idea of “so far / up to now”, not just a plain negation.
Nicht negates verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or whole clauses.
Kein(e) negates a noun with no article or with an indefinite article.
Here we’re negating the noun Antwort (an answer). There is no article like eine present, so we use keine:
- Ich habe eine Antwort. – I have an answer.
- Ich habe keine Antwort. – I have no answer / I don’t have an answer.
Compare:
- Ich antworte nicht. – I am not answering. (negating the verb antworten)
- Ich habe keine Antwort. – I don’t have an answer. (negating the noun Antwort)
So we use keine because we are saying “no answer / not any answer,” not “not answering.”
In German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of position in the sentence.
Antwort is a noun (meaning “answer, reply”), so it must be capitalized:
- die Antwort – the answer
- Ich habe noch keine Antwort.
This is a core rule of German spelling: every noun starts with a capital letter, unlike English, where only proper nouns and sentence starts are capitalized.
Antwort is:
- Gender: feminine – die Antwort
- Case in this sentence: accusative singular
How do we know it’s accusative?
- Antwort is the direct object of the verb haben.
- The structure is: Ich (subject) – habe (verb) – (noch) keine Antwort (direct object).
- The verb haben always takes its object in the accusative case.
So here we have:
- feminine accusative singular → article/negation form: keine
- Therefore: keine Antwort.
The form of kein must agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun:
- Antwort is feminine, singular, accusative.
The declension of kein in the singular is (important forms):
- Masculine: kein (nom.), keinen (acc.)
- Neuter: kein (nom./acc.)
- Feminine: keine (nom./acc.)
So for a feminine accusative singular noun like Antwort, the correct form is keine:
- ✅ keine Antwort
- ❌ keinen Antwort (that would match a masculine noun in accusative)
- ❌ kein Antwort (wrong ending for feminine)
So keine is exactly the form that matches die Antwort in accusative.
In standard German word order, noch (as “yet/still”) typically goes in the middle field, roughly after the verb and before what it’s modifying or before the main negation:
- Ich habe noch keine Antwort.
- Ich habe noch kein Geld.
- Ich habe heute noch nichts gegessen.
Putting noch at the end here:
- ❌ Ich habe keine Antwort noch.
sounds unnatural and is not used in normal standard German for this meaning. Germans expect noch before the negated element (keine Antwort).
A natural variation is:
- Ich habe noch keine Antwort bekommen.
- Ich habe noch keine Antwort von ihm.
But Ich habe keine Antwort noch is not idiomatic.
No. In Ich habe noch keine Antwort, habe is the main (lexical) verb meaning “to have, to possess”.
- Ich habe noch keine Antwort.
→ Literally: I have no answer yet. (I am not in possession of an answer.)
In English, we often say:
- I haven’t received an answer yet.
Here “have” is an auxiliary helping to form the present perfect of “receive”.
If we want to mirror that structure in German and use haben as an auxiliary, we need a past participle:
- Ich habe noch keine Antwort bekommen.
- Ich habe noch keine Antwort erhalten.
There, habe is an auxiliary, and bekommen/erhalten is the main verb in participle form.
So in your original sentence, habe is just “to have”, not an auxiliary.
You contrast “still not yet” with “no longer”. German uses different particles:
“I still don’t have any answer.”
→ Ich habe noch keine Antwort.- noch = yet / still (up to now, but it may change)
- Implies: You’re still waiting; the situation might change.
“I don’t have an answer anymore.”
→ Ich habe keine Antwort mehr.- mehr with a negation = “anymore / no longer”
- Implies: You used to have an answer (or there used to be one), but now that has changed.
So:
- noch keine = not yet
- keine … mehr = no longer / not anymore
They are similar in meaning, but there’s a nuance:
Ich habe noch keine Antwort.
- Literally: I don’t have an answer yet.
- Focus: your current state – you are without an answer at the moment.
- Very common and perfectly idiomatic.
Ich habe noch keine Antwort bekommen.
- Literally: I haven’t received an answer yet.
- Focus: the action of receiving an answer.
- Very natural if you’re talking about waiting for someone else’s reply (e.g. email, message).
Ich habe noch keine Antwort erhalten.
- Similar to bekommen, but more formal and neutral (common in written/formal contexts).
In everyday speech, bekommen is very frequent. In formal writing, erhalten often sounds nicer.
Ich habe noch keine Antwort. is a bit more general and slightly more “state-focused,” but all are acceptable, context-dependent choices.
In a formal or semi-formal email, you often:
- add leider (unfortunately) to sound polite and regretful,
- optionally specify the source (von Ihnen, auf meine Anfrage),
- maybe use erhalten for a more formal tone.
Some natural options:
- Ich habe leider noch keine Antwort erhalten.
- Leider habe ich bisher noch keine Antwort von Ihnen erhalten.
- Bisher habe ich leider noch keine Antwort auf meine Anfrage bekommen.
These sound polite and are common when you want to follow up or gently remind someone.
Yes, you can say Ich habe keine Antwort, but the nuance changes:
Ich habe noch keine Antwort.
- Implies: “not yet” – you’re still waiting, and there is an expectation an answer will come.
- Neutral, often used when explaining the current (temporary) situation.
Ich habe keine Antwort.
- Just a plain negation – I don’t have an answer.
- No built-in idea of “yet / up to now / but maybe later.”
- Can sound more final or more blunt, depending on context.
In many contexts where you’re waiting for a reply (email, message, result), noch is very natural and often expected, because you usually mean “not yet.”
Yes, there is a subtle but important difference in focus:
Ich habe noch keine Antwort.
- Focus is on you: I don’t have an answer yet.
- Situations:
- You’re waiting for someone to reply to your question.
- Someone asks you for information, and you explain that you personally don’t have an answer yet.
Es gibt noch keine Antwort.
- Literally: There is no answer yet.
- Focus is on the existence (or non-existence) of an answer at all.
- Sounds more impersonal and general:
- A problem hasn’t been solved yet.
- A decision hasn’t been made yet.
- No official answer exists at this time.
In many everyday situations, both can be used, but:
- Talking about your inbox / your question to someone → Ich habe noch keine Antwort. is more natural.
- Talking about something like an official statement, a public decision, or a general solution → Es gibt noch keine Antwort. often fits better.