Word
В лесу ничего не цветёт, поэтому пчёлам не из чего собирать нектар.
Meaning
Nothing is blooming in the forest, so the bees have nothing to collect nectar from.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of В лесу ничего не цветёт, поэтому пчёлам не из чего собирать нектар.
не
not
в
in / to (direction)
поэтому
so (therefore)
ничего
nothing
Questions & Answers about В лесу ничего не цветёт, поэтому пчёлам не из чего собирать нектар.
Why is it не из чего as three separate words instead of just using a normal negative pronoun?
When a predicative negative pronoun like нечего (there is nothing to...) is used with a preposition, the preposition breaks the pronoun apart and sits right in the middle. Because bees collect nectar from something (из), the preposition из splits the word into не из чего.
Why is there no extra не before the verb собирать, when the first half of the sentence has ничего не цветёт?
Regular negative pronouns starting with ни- (like ничего) require a negative verb, creating a standard double negative. However, predicative pronouns starting with a stressed не- (like нечего or не из чего) mean 'there is no [X] to [do something]'. They always pair directly with an infinitive verb without adding another не.
Where does the stress fall in the three-word phrase не из чего?
In all split predicative pronouns starting with не, the stress heavily remains on the не. You should pronounce this phrase as НЕ из чего.
Why is the word for 'bees' in the dative case (пчёлам) instead of the nominative (пчёлы)?