Questions & Answers about Никто никуда не идёт вечером.
Why are there three negatives in Никто никуда не идёт вечером? Isn’t that “too many” negatives?
Russian uses negative concord: multiple negative words in the same clause are normal and required. With negative pronouns/adverbs like никто (no one) and никуда (to nowhere), the verb must also be negated with не. The sentence doesn’t become “positive” from multiple negatives; they work together to express a single, strong negation: Nobody is going anywhere. Saying Никто никуда идёт (without не) is ungrammatical.
Do I have to use both никто and никуда? What changes if I use only one?
You don’t have to use both. Any one negative element plus не is enough to make a correct negative sentence:
- Никто не идёт вечером. = No one is going (this evening).
- Он никуда не идёт вечером. = He isn’t going anywhere in the evening. Using both (Никто никуда не идёт) makes the statement more sweeping: nobody is going anywhere. Don’t drop не on the verb in any of these.
What’s the difference between не and ни here?