Verneinung — saying no with nicht and kein

German has two negation words that English smooshes into one. Nicht and kein are not interchangeable. Knowing which to pick is a two-second decision, but you do have to make the decision.

The rule in one line

Use kein to negate a noun that would otherwise take ein or no article. Use nicht for everything else.

That's the whole rule. Nouns with an indefinite article — ein Auto, eine Idee, Kinder (plural bare noun), Kaffee (uncountable) — flip to kein Auto, keine Idee, keine Kinder, keinen Kaffee. Everything else (verbs, adjectives, nouns with a definite article, prepositional phrases, adverbs) gets nicht.

kein declines like ein

You've already learned this. kein follows the same endings as ein, in every case. If you can do einen and einem, you can do keinen and keinem.

Worked examples

Where nicht goes in the sentence

This is the part that feels weird at first. Nicht has a position rule based on what it's negating.

1) Negating the whole action → nicht goes near the end, just before any non-conjugated verb parts (infinitives, participles) or a sentence-final element.

2) Negating a specific element → nicht goes right before that element.

3) Negating a prepositional phrase → nicht goes before the whole phrase.

One practical rule of thumb: think of the thing you're pushing against, and nicht goes right before it.

kein doesn't have the position problem

Kein replaces ein (or nothing) in place. Just use it where ein would be. No movement rules.

Common mistakes, named

1. Reaching for nicht when kein is right. Ich habe nicht ein Auto. ❌ → Ich habe kein Auto. ✓ Whenever ein would appear, negate with kein.

2. Reaching for kein when nicht is right. Ich kenne kein den Mann. ❌ → Ich kenne den Mann nicht. ✓ Definite article is there — it's nicht territory.

3. Putting nicht in the wrong position. Ich nicht komme heute. ❌ → Ich komme heute nicht. ✓ Nicht doesn't sit between subject and verb. Verb stays in slot 2 (V2 rule), then nicht goes near the end.

4. Forgetting to decline kein. Ich habe kein Hund. ❌ → Ich habe keinen Hund. ✓ Hund is Akkusativ masculine → add -en.

Mini check

Where this leads

One of the big discoveries coming: you can glue clauses together with und, aber, oder. These coordinating conjunctions keep V2 word order. Weil and dass and the other subordinators do something very different — we'll meet those later.

Next up: Konjunktionen — und, aber, oder, denn, sondern.

Test yourself