Grammar › Emphatic Negation
疑問詞 + も + negative — “nothing, no one, nowhere”
Total negation: 何も食べませんでした — I didn't eat anything at all
Attaching も to a question word (何, 誰, どこ) and finishing the sentence with a negative verb creates a total negative: 何も (nothing at all), 誰も (no one at all), どこも (nowhere at all). It's one of the very first “emphatic negation” patterns learners meet, long before the more advanced ones.
How to form it
| Pattern | Example |
|---|---|
| 何も + negative | 何も食べませんでした — I didn't eat anything |
| 誰も + negative | 誰も来ませんでした — no one came |
| どこも + negative | 今日はどこも行きません — I'm not going anywhere today |
Example sentences
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 今朝は何も食べませんでした。 | けさはなにもたべませんでした。 kesahananimotabemasendeshita。 | I didn't eat anything this morning. |
| 教室には誰もいませんでした。 | きょうしつにはだれもいませんでした。 kyoushitsunihadaremoimasendeshita。 | There was no one in the classroom. |
| 休みの日はどこも行きたくない。 | やすみのひはどこもいきたくない。 yasuminohihadokomoikitakunai。 | I don't want to go anywhere on my day off. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese sentence to hear it; kanji link to their study pages.
Watch out
Swap も for か (何か, 誰か, どこか) and the meaning flips completely, from “nothing/no one at all” to “something/someone” — a single character changes total negation into a vague, positive indefinite.