Learn Russian: Я ни о чём не думал без двадцати шесть, когда ждал поезд. - I wasn't thinking about anything at twenty to six when I was waiting for the train.

Я ни о чём не думал без двадцати шесть, когда ждал поезд.

I wasn't thinking about anything at twenty to six when I was waiting for the train.

Breakdown of Я ни о чём не думал без двадцати шесть, когда ждал поезд.

Questions & Answers about Я ни о чём не думал без двадцати шесть, когда ждал поезд.

How does без двадцати шесть literally translate to "twenty to six"?

It literally translates as "without twenty, six." The preposition без (without) requires the Genitive case, changing the number двадцать to двадцати. The hour itself, шесть, stays in the Nominative case.

Why is the preposition in the middle of ни о чём?

When a negative pronoun like ничто (nothing) is used with a preposition (in this case, о meaning "about"), the preposition is inserted directly between the negative particle ни and the pronoun. This splits the concept into three separate words: ни о чём.

Why are there two negatives (ни and не) in the first part of the sentence?

Russian uses mandatory double negatives. Whenever you use a negative word or phrase like ни о чём (about nothing), you must also make the main verb negative by putting не before it (не думал).

I thought the verb ждать (to wait) required the Genitive case. Why is it ждал поезд instead of ждал поезда?

You use the Genitive with ждать when waiting for something indefinite or abstract. You use the Accusative case when waiting for a specific, concrete thing. Here, the speaker is waiting for a specific scheduled train, so поезд is in the Accusative. Since it is an inanimate masculine noun, its Accusative form looks exactly like the Nominative.