Double negation in Russian

Hello, dear student! Today we are going to discuss such topic as negation in Russian. In some languages there can be only one negation in a sentence, but not in the Russian language:) Let's look at the examples:

Никто не знает, сколько стоят эти бусы [Nikto ni znaet, skol'ka stoyat ekhti busy] - Nobody knows how much do these beads cost

Таня никогда не была на этом мосту [Tanya nikagda ni byla na ekhtam mastu] - Tanya has never been on this bridge

As you have already noticed, one of the examples includes the negative pronoun "Никто" (nobody) which is always followed by a certain verb with the particle "не", that also expresses negation - it is the rule of the Russian language. We cannot say:

Никто поехал в лес [Nikto paekhal v les] - Nobody went to the forest - it is incorrect and considered to be a mistake. If a person writes or says such sentence, no one can understand him at all or understand in a wrong way. The correct option has double negation:

Никто не поехал в лес [Nikto ni paekhal v les] - Nobody went to the forest - this is correct sentence formed with the pronoun "никто" and the particle "не" before the verb.

A negative pronoun is declined in the following way:

Nom.c. никто [nikto] nobody
Gen. никого [nikavo]
Dat. никому [nikamu]
Acc. никого [nikavo]
Inst. никем [nikem]
Prep. ни о ком [niakom]

The pronoun "никто" means negation for animate nouns in the Russian language. If you want to say about inanimate objects, you should use the pronoun "ничто" (nothing):

Ничего не происходит просто так [Nichivo ni praiskhodit prosta tak] - Nothing happens by accident

To decline the pronoun "ничто", let's look at the following scheme: Remember that this pronoun has the form "ничто" in nominative case

Nom. ничто [nishto] nothing
Gen. ничего [nichivo]
Dat. ничему [nichimu]
Acc. ничего or ничто [nichivo] or [nishto]
Inst. ничем [nichem]
Prep. ни о чём [niachyom]

These negative pronouns can very often be separated with a preposition, that's why they are written separately, for example:

Ни у кого нет ручки? [Ni u kavo net ruchki?] - Does anybody have a pen?

Я ни о чём не хочу говорить [Ya ni a chyom ni khachu gavarit'] - I don't want to talk about anything