could anyone help me

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Zerkjo's avatar
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im having a lot of trouble with learning where and when to use nicht / kein in german and the explanation given to me just isnt making sense in my dumb ADHD brain and im having a lot of trouble finding anyone whos willing to help?? i need someone patient tbh it can take me awhile to get things : (
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leafturtle's avatar
I do know enough German that I MIGHT be able to explain it to you? I'll do my best ^^ And if it still doesn't make sense I'll try to clarify ^^

Kein is used more for the times you want to say things like I don't have a pencil  (Ich habe keien/keine/kein [Pencil])

I've read that kein appears where 'nicht ein' would so like in the previous example you could say (Ich habe nicht ein/eine/einen [Pencil] as well but kein would be preferable) But you wouldn't say Ich have nicht ein/eine/einen [pencil], I guess it would be a bit like saying "I have not a pencil." rather than "I don't have a pencil."

I don't blame you for not really understanding it at first, I struggled a lot with learning it too and I still find it difficult to explain, I think overtime you get more accustomed to when you use it without really thinking because it sounds 'right' one way over another.

I've always thought of 'kein' as 'to be without' (I habe keinen/keine/kein [Book]) while 'nicht' was more along the lines of 'not/didn't' (Ich will nicht ins Kino gehen - I don't want to go to the cinema)

I wonder if this might be a little useful to you? It might explain it better than I did, it also has examples :)

www.jabbalab.com/blog/821/kein…

But if you can find someone who is German you might have more luck with getting a clear explanation! ^^ I've only been learning it so not everything I said might be entirely correct ^^; It's just the way I understand it ^^;