Я ничего не вижу в тёмной комнате.

Yes, it is a double negative by English standards, but in Russian that is completely normal. Russian uses negative concord: if the sentence is negative, words like nothing, nobody, nowhere, etc. usually appear together with не.

So:

• Я ничего не вижу = I don’t see anything / I see nothing
• literally, word-for-word, it looks like I nothing not see

In Russian, this is the standard pattern, not a mistake.

Ничто is the nominative form, and it is mostly used as a subject, often in more formal or literary language:

• Ничто не вечно. = Nothing is eternal.

In your sentence, nothing is the object of the verb вижу, and in negative constructions Russian normally uses ничего here:

• Я ничего не вижу.

For a learner, it is very helpful to memorize ничего не + verb as a common pattern meaning not ... anything / nothing.

Вижу is the 1st person singular present tense form of видеть (to see).

So:

• видеть = to see
• я вижу = I see

Because the verb ending already shows the subject, вижу itself tells you the speaker is I.

This verb is imperfective, which fits an ongoing situation or current state: I don’t see anything.

You can leave it out.

Russian often drops subject pronouns when the verb form already makes the subject clear. So both are natural:

• Я ничего не вижу в тёмной комнате.
• Ничего не вижу в тёмной комнате.

Including Я can add a bit of emphasis, contrast, or clarity. Without it, the sentence is still perfectly normal.

Because they are in the prepositional case.

The preposition в can mean in, and when it shows location (not motion), the noun after it usually goes into the prepositional case:

• комната → в комнате = in the room

The adjective must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case:

• тёмная комната = dark room
• в тёмной комнате = in the dark room

So:

• комнате = prepositional singular of комната
• тёмной = feminine singular prepositional form of тёмный

Because в тёмной комнате means in the dark room as a location.

Russian uses different cases depending on whether you mean:

• location: in the room → в комнате
• motion into: into the room → в комнату

So:

• Я ничего не вижу в тёмной комнате. = I see nothing in the dark room.
• Я вхожу в тёмную комнату. = I enter the dark room / go into the dark room.

There is no separate word for the in Russian. Russian has no articles like a and the.

So в тёмной комнате can mean:

• in a dark room
• in the dark room

Context tells you which one is meant.

That is why one Russian sentence can often be translated into English in more than one natural way.

Yes, you can. That is also grammatical and natural.

Both of these are possible:

• Я ничего не вижу в тёмной комнате.
• Я не вижу ничего в тёмной комнате.

The basic meaning is the same. The difference is mostly about emphasis and rhythm. Ничего не вижу is a very common, natural pattern, so learners hear it a lot.

Russian word order is more flexible than English word order, but the neutral meaning stays the same here.

Yes. In many Russian texts, ё is often written as е, so you may see both:

• тёмной
• темной

But the pronunciation is still the same: it is pronounced with ё, not plain е.

For learners, writing ё is very helpful because it shows both the correct sound and the stress.

It can naturally mean both, depending on context.

Russian often uses не вижу where English might prefer can’t see. So:

• Я ничего не вижу в тёмной комнате. can be understood as
• I see nothing in the dark room or more naturally in many situations,
• I can’t see anything in the dark room

English often chooses the version that sounds most natural in context, even if Russian does not explicitly use a word like can.