Breakdown of В парке темно, и я никого не замечаю.
и
and
не
not
парк
park
я
I
в
in / to (direction)
никто
nobody
темно
dark
замечать
to notice
Questions & Answers about В парке темно, и я никого не замечаю.
Why does the sentence use никого instead of никто?
Никого is the Accusative case form of никто (nobody/no one). Because "nobody" is the direct object receiving the action of the verb замечаю (I notice), it must be in the Accusative case. Remember that for animate nouns (people and animals), the Accusative case looks exactly like the Genitive case.
Why do we need both никого and не? Isn't that a double negative?
Yes, and Russian requires a double negative here! When you use a negative pronoun like никто (or its forms like никого), you must also put the negative particle не right before the verb. The literal translation of this part is "I nobody not notice."
Where are the words for "it" and "is" in В парке темно?
Why is the verb замечаю used here instead of its perfective partner?
Замечаю (I notice) is an imperfective verb, which is used here because it describes an ongoing state in the present. You are in the park right now, looking around, and in the process of not noticing anyone.
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