Thread: Ничто vs. Нечто?

Никто Некто
Ничто Нечто
Нигде Негде
Никуда Некуда
Никак Некак

What is the difference in use between the sets of words above?

Is the second of the following two constructions correct?

В магазине ничего нет

В магазине нечего нет

Many thanks.

Никто = no one
Некто = someone = кто-то
Ничто = nought, nothing
Нечто = something = что-то
Нигде = nowhere
Негде = nowhere to... (I have nowhere to hide this box) - Мне негде спрятать эту коробку.
Никуда = don't/not ... anywhere (I'm not going anywhere)
Некуда = don't/not ... anywhere to... (I don't have anywhere to go) - Мне некуда идти.
Никак = nohow/not anyhow (You can't find it anyhow) - вы никак это не найдёте.
Некак - very obsolete, I can't explain it.

Где vs Куда = Location (где, негде) vs Direction (куда, некуда)

Негде / некуда are sometimes interchangeable.

Мне негде спрятаться. (location)
Мне некуда спрятаться. (direction)
These mean exactly the same thing.

And sometimes not:
Мне негде жить (location)
Мне некуда пойти (direction)

Originally Posted by Mr Smith

В магазине ничего нет - There is nothing in the shop. or There is not anything in the shop.
В магазине нечего нет - not a valid sentence

The words with ни- are true negations (similar to the ones with no- in English, compare: nothing, nobody, nowhere).
In all those words the prefix "ни-" is unstressed (the stress falls on the root): никто, ничто, никакой, нисколько, нигде, никуда, ниоткуда, никак, никогда ...

Note that Russian uses the so-called "double negation" - the verb should also be negated if the sentence contains one of the listed above:

Этого никто не знает. No one knows it.
Ничто мне не поможет. Nothing will help me.
Я не читаю никаких книг. I read no books (no kind of them).
Я не потратил нисколько денег. I spent no money (zero amount).
Я нигде не видел такого красивого заката. I saw such a beautiful sunset nowhere.
etc. etc.

And if there are multiple pronouns, each one is negated:
Я никогда никому ничего не скажу. - I will never say anything to anyone. Literally: "I will not never say nothing to nobody".

All the pronouns with "не-" on the contrary have their stress on the prefix: некто, нечто, некоторый, несколько, негде, некуда, неоткуда, некогда ...
So, the pronunciation of "никто" and "некто" (and all other similar pairs) is very different - they have different stress and different vowels.
The meaning is competely different.

There are 2 classes of "не-" pronouns. The most difficult thing for a non-native speaker is not to confuse those 2 classes.

Class 1 is indefinite pronouns.

Not all the pronouns listed above can be used as indefinite. The indefinite pronouns are: некто, нечто, некоторый, несколько and некогда. They express something unknown, and the meaning of "не-" is close to the meaning of English "some-". There is no negation in this case! They are not negative, they are positive but indefinite.

Most often used are "некоторый" (some, some kind of, some sort of, some of) and "несколько" (some number of, some amount of, several, a few). Both are used with nouns:
Я знаю некоторые арабские буквы. - I know some of Arabic letters. Некоторые люди не любят музыку. - Some people do not like music.
У меня есть несколько газет. - I have several (a few) newspapers. Он знает несколько языков. - He knows several languages.

Then we have "некто" and "нечто", they mean "somebody" and "something" accordingly. Those words are bookish, and not frequently used in colloquial speech (although it is possible).
Некто can only be used in Nominative (no other case!): Некто открыл дверь. - Somebody opened the door. Тебе звонил некто Джон. A John (somebody called John) called you.
Нечто can only be used in Nominative and Accusative (no other case!): Нечто упало с потолка. Something fell from the ceiling. Я увидел нечто странное. I saw something strange.

Note: there is a well-known philosofical question which is rendered in Russian as
Почему существует нечто, а не ничто? (Why does something exist and not nothing?)

As to your example:
В магазине ничего нет. = There is nothing in the shop.
В магазине есть нечто. = There is something in the shop (and I do not know what it is, it puzzles me) - this usage is bookish.

And finally, the indefinite pronoun "некогда" means "once upon a time", "long time ago" and it is outdated already. You can mainly find it in Russian literature: Некогда Россией управлял император. - Long time ago Russia was governed by an imperior.

Class 2 is a special class of negative pronouns.
I do not know a linguistic term for this class (but I am sure there is one), but they are not "true negations", they express "lack of ability".

Not all the pronouns listed above can be used with this meaning. The "lack of ability" pronouns are: некого, нечего, негде, некуда, неоткуда, некогда, незачем and maybe some more.
What they actually express is that someone has no means (no time, no place, no reason) etc. to do something. The person is always in Dative.

Мне негде жить. - There is no place for me to live.
Ему негде работать. - There is no place (no room) for him to work.
Нам некуда бежать. - There is no place for us to run to.
Воде неоткуда течь. - There is no place for the water to flow from.
Мне некогда отдыхать. - There is no time for me to rest.
Сергею некогда учить английский. - There is no time for Sergey to learn English.
Тебе незачем туда ходить. - There is no reason for you to go there.
Анне незачем тебе помогать. - There is no reason for Anna to help you.

Note that "некого" and "нечего" are used as class 2 (lack of ability) only when they are in one of oblique cases (any case other than the dictionary form, i.e. any case other than just "некто" and "нечто"):
Мне некого просить о помощи. - There is nobody for me to ask for help.
Ему нечего ждать. - There is nothing for him to wait for.
Тебе некому писать письма. - There is nobody for you to write letters to.
Мне не к чему стремиться. - There is nothing for me to strive for (when there is a preposition, it is inserted between "не" and the root: к + нечему = не к чему).
Нам некем гордиться. - There is nobody for us to be proud of.
Джону нечем писать. - There is nothing for John to write with (he has nothing to write with).
Нам не о ком рассказывать. - There is nobody for us to tell stories about.
Нам не о чем разговаривать. - There is nothing for us to talk about.

Finally, you may be puzzled how one can tell class 1 and class 2 apart.

There are some hints:

Некоторый and несколько are always class 1 (indefinite).

Некто and нечто are class 1 (indefinite) when they are used in their dictionary form.
They are class 2 (lack of ability) when they are used in any oblique case (other than the dictionary form): некого (нечего), некому (нечему), некем (нечем), не о ком (не о чем).
All the examples are in my posts above.

Некогда is really ambiguous. It can mean "once upon a time", and it can mean "there is no time for someone to do something". The difference can be only deducted from the context:
Некогда Москва была маленьким городом. - Once upon a time Moscow was a small town.
В Москве отдыхать некогда. - There is no time to have a rest in Moscow.
The first usage is however outdated.

I think, all other pronouns with "не-" are only "lack of ability".


And yes, Mr Smith!
If you feel you don't fully understand something, don't get upset! I would say (it's my personal opinion) that the indefinite pronouns (не-, кое-, -то, -либо, -нибудь) is one of the most complicated things in Russian grammar. And the pronouns with "не-" are the most complicated even among the other indefinite pronouns.
So, you have found a very nice (jokingly) question to ask about
As to my opinion, I would not recommend to the beginners to be bothered with "не-" pronouns too much. They are more for advanced level. (That does not apply to the negative "ни-" pronouns, they are much easier). The main thing you should remember is that "не-" pronouns are not like "ни-" ones! They are a completely different continent, and pronounced differently.

Many thanks indeed for your superb response Боб Уайтман! It's always a great pleasure to receive your input.