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This is the kind of things I know how to use in practice, but would not manage to explain to someone in theory.

Некогда, нечего, нечем, не с кем... they differ from никогда, ничего, ничем, ни с кем in usage.

  • Мне некогда - I have no time (literally "to me no when").
  • Нечего делать - There's nothing that can be done.
  • Не с кем говорить - There's no one to talk to.
  • Нечем дышать! - There's no way to breathe!
  • Не о чём жалеть - There's nothing to regret.

But:

  • Никогда не будет времени - There will never be [enough] time.
  • Ничего не делал - I didn't anything.
  • Не говорю ни с кем - I don't talk to anyone.
  • Не могу дышать ничем! - I can't breathe in any way!
  • Я стараюсь ни о чём не жалеть - I try not to regret anything.

So far so good. In practice, I know when to use не- and ни-. But how can the difference in usage be explained, say, in a "scientific" way?

Maybe не- words are used exclusively in impersonal sentences (only with the dative in order to refer to a passive subject, like in "мне некогда"), whereas ни- words are personal, referring to an active subject?

On a side note, which syntax is better?

  • Мне не с кем говорить

or

  • У меня не с кем говорить
shabunc
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swrutra
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  • please make your question clearer – shabunc Jul 16 '18 at 22:21
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    It's all very easy: не is negative, but ни is emphatic, look at your examples and notice that ни is used only in those sentence that already have не. A sentence can have не only, but it cannot have ни only, ни must always be paired with не. – Yellow Sky Jul 16 '18 at 23:37
  • "Не" means logical inversion, denial, negative; but "ни" means "nothing of the kind/alternatives" (and may have other meanings in some contexts https://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/16799/). – yury10578 Jul 17 '18 at 05:51
  • @shabunc the question or rather the request is pretty clearly stated *But how can the difference in usage be explained, say, in a "scientific" way?*, and there're already answers showing that people understand it, i vote for reopening – Баян Купи-ка Jul 17 '18 at 07:15
  • note also that the *не-* words are only used with infinitives, either explicit or implied – Баян Купи-ка Jul 17 '18 at 07:19
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    in a rough and crude explanation the *не-* words denote absence of an object, the *ни-* words denote inadequacy or undesirability of any object available, and in some cases they may denote different objects like in *нечем* (air) *дышать* and *не дышать ничем* (substance or body part) – Баян Купи-ка Jul 17 '18 at 07:44
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    @БаянКупи-ка I've reopened it and just made the question bold in order to make it immediately visible. – shabunc Jul 17 '18 at 13:55

2 Answers2

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"Не", either in a prefix or as a particle, means logical inversion, denial, negative; but "ни" means "nothing of the kind/none of the variants/alternatives" (and may have other meanings in some contexts: Why is “ни” omitted here to say “nothing”?).

Eugene
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yury10578
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As long as all your examples contain pronouns derived from particles and other pronouns we can talk about pronouns only for a while. In the case Yellow Sky's comment is right. You can treat "не(когда/где/куда/etc)" as negative pronouns, which mean absence of time/place/direction/etc. Whereas "ни(когда/где/куда)" stresses the negation expressed by "не + verb" construction. The negative construction can be omitted, but is usually obvious. E.g. "В комнате никого [нет]" -- Nobody in the room.

I think it's worth to mention "некто" and "нечто". The former is for 'someone', the latter -- 'something amazing' or 'something unknown, obscure'. "Некто ничего не делал" - someone (we don't know him/her) didn't anything. "То, что он сделал, -- это нечто!" - he made something wonderful.

And be careful! We like to play with "ни". E.g. sometimes they describe their idleness as "Делаю ничего". Don't be confused: that still means "ничего не делаю", with some connotation perhaps. On the other hand, "Ты никто/ничто" is indignity.

These particles are also used separately from pronouns. Main logic is the same. "Не" means negation, "Ни" - emphasis of negation.

Also "ни..., ни..." сonstruction is used like English "neither... nor...".
"В прошлом году ни Италия, ни Франция не прошли в четвертьфинал." -- 'Neither Italy nor France got to the quarter finals last year.'

Nimtar
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