Learn Italian: È troppo buio e non possiamo vedere niente. - It is too dark and we cannot see anything.

È troppo buio e non possiamo vedere niente.

It is too dark and we cannot see anything.

Breakdown of È troppo buio e non possiamo vedere niente.

too, too much, too many

Questions & Answers about È troppo buio e non possiamo vedere niente.

Doesn't non possiamo vedere niente literally mean "we cannot see nothing"? Is that a double negative?

Yes, it is! In English, double negatives are usually incorrect, but in Italian, they are absolutely required when niente (nothing/anything) comes after the verb. To say you can't see anything, you have to put non before the verb and niente after it.

Could I leave out the non and just say possiamo vedere niente?

No, that would be grammatically incorrect. If niente comes after the verb, the verb must be preceded by non. You only drop the non if niente is the subject at the beginning of the sentence (for example: Niente è facile - "Nothing is easy").

Where is the word for "it" in È troppo buio?

Italian drops subject pronouns very often. For impersonal statements like weather, time, or general conditions (like "it is late" or "it is dark"), you don't use a word for "it". You just start directly with the third-person singular verb: È (It is).

Why is vedere in its infinitive (dictionary) form instead of being conjugated for "we"?