Neither in Different Languages
Discover 'Neither' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Neither
Afrikaans ook nie | ||
Albanian as | ||
Amharic አይደለም | ||
Arabic لا هذا ولا ذاك | ||
Armenian ոչ մեկը | ||
Assamese এটাও নহয় | ||
Aymara ni | ||
Azerbaijani nə də | ||
Bambara o fana tɛ | ||
Basque ezta ere | ||
Belarusian таксама | ||
Bengali না | ||
Bhojpuri ना ई ना ऊ | ||
Bosnian ni jedno ni drugo | ||
Bulgarian нито едно | ||
Catalan tampoc | ||
Cebuano ni | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 都不 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 都不 | ||
Corsican mancu | ||
Croatian ni | ||
Czech ani | ||
Danish ingen af dem | ||
Dhivehi މިހެނެއްނޫން | ||
Dogri कोई नेईं | ||
Dutch geen van beide | ||
English neither | ||
Esperanto nek | ||
Estonian kumbki | ||
Ewe menye esia o | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) hindi rin | ||
Finnish ei kumpikaan | ||
French ni | ||
Frisian gjin fan beide | ||
Galician nin | ||
Georgian არც | ||
German weder | ||
Greek κανενα απο τα δυο | ||
Guarani mba'evéichagua | ||
Gujarati ન તો | ||
Haitian Creole ni | ||
Hausa ba | ||
Hawaiian ʻaʻole hoʻi | ||
Hebrew לא זה ולא זה | ||
Hindi न | ||
Hmong thiab | ||
Hungarian se | ||
Icelandic hvorugt | ||
Igbo abughi | ||
Ilocano uray ania | ||
Indonesian tidak juga | ||
Irish ceachtar | ||
Italian nessuno dei due | ||
Japanese どちらでもない | ||
Javanese sanadyan | ||
Kannada ಇಲ್ಲ | ||
Kazakh екеуі де | ||
Khmer ទាំង | ||
Kinyarwanda nta na kimwe | ||
Konkani खंयचेंच न्हय | ||
Korean 둘 다 | ||
Krio ɔ | ||
Kurdish qet | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) هیچ یەک | ||
Kyrgyz дагы | ||
Lao ທັງ | ||
Latin neque | ||
Latvian ne viens, ne otrs | ||
Lingala moko te | ||
Lithuanian nei vienas, nei kitas | ||
Luganda newankubadde | ||
Luxembourgish weder | ||
Macedonian ниту едно | ||
Maithili नहि | ||
Malagasy tsy | ||
Malay tidak juga | ||
Malayalam ഇല്ല | ||
Maltese ebda | ||
Maori kaua hoki | ||
Marathi नाही | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯑꯃꯠꯇ ꯑꯣꯏꯗꯕ | ||
Mizo ni lo ve ve | ||
Mongolian бас биш | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) မဟုတ်ပါ | ||
Nepali न त | ||
Norwegian ingen | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) ngakhale | ||
Odia (Oriya) ନା | ||
Oromo lachuuyyuu miti | ||
Pashto نه | ||
Persian نه نه | ||
Polish ani | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) nem | ||
Punjabi ਨਾ ਹੀ | ||
Quechua mana mayqinpas | ||
Romanian nici | ||
Russian ни то, ни другое | ||
Samoan e leai foi | ||
Sanskrit न वा | ||
Scots Gaelic ni mò | ||
Sepedi e sego | ||
Serbian ни | ||
Sesotho leha | ||
Shona kana | ||
Sindhi نه | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) නැත | ||
Slovak ani jeden | ||
Slovenian niti | ||
Somali midkoodna | ||
Spanish ninguno | ||
Sundanese henteu ogé | ||
Swahili wala | ||
Swedish varken | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) hindi rin | ||
Tajik на | ||
Tamil இல்லை | ||
Tatar шулай ук | ||
Telugu కాదు | ||
Thai ไม่ | ||
Tigrinya ዋላ | ||
Tsonga xin'we xa | ||
Turkish hiçbiri | ||
Turkmen ýa-da ýok | ||
Twi (Akan) ɛnyɛ biara | ||
Ukrainian ні | ||
Urdu نہ ہی | ||
Uyghur ھەم ئەمەس | ||
Uzbek na | ||
Vietnamese cũng không | ||
Welsh ychwaith | ||
Xhosa hayi | ||
Yiddish אויך ניט | ||
Yoruba bẹni | ||
Zulu hhayi |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The word "ook nie" in Afrikaans is used to express a negative response in a more emphatic way, akin to "absolutely not" or "not at all" in English. |
| Albanian | The word 'as' in Albanian can also be used to denote 'nor'. |
| Amharic | The word አይደለም in Amharic derives from the root negation 'አይ-' and the verb 'ደለ' (to be). While it primarily means 'neither,' it can also be used as a synonym for 'not' in certain contexts. |
| Arabic | The word "لا هذا ولا ذاك" literally means "not this, nor that". |
| Armenian | Ոչ մեկը (neither) can also refer to the absence of anything or anyone in Armenian. |
| Azerbaijani | The word "nə də" ultimately comes from Persian and literally means "not even" or "not to say". |
| Basque | "Ezta ere" is a contraction of the phrases "ez da ere" and "ezta da ere," where "ez" means "no," "da" means "is," "ere" means "also," and "ezta" is a negative coordinating conjunction. |
| Bengali | The Bengali word "না" can also be used to indicate negation, denial, or refusal. |
| Bosnian | The word "ni" means "not" in Bosnian, and "jedno" and "drugo" mean "one" and "other," respectively. |
| Bulgarian | In Bulgarian, "нито едно" can also be used to refer to "no one" or "nothing". |
| Catalan | The Spanish word "tampoco" and the Catalan word "tampoc" both mean "neither" and originate from the Latin word "tampōcum". |
| Cebuano | Cebuano "ni" also exists in Old High German, but with the opposite meaning of "not". |
| Chinese (Simplified) | “都不”由“都”演变而来，原义为“全部”或“一齐” |
| Chinese (Traditional) | "Neither" (都不) is a word in Mandarin Chinese used to indicate negation of two or more options. It is also used as an intensifier to emphasize the negative aspect of a situation. |
| Corsican | The Corsican word "mancu" is derived from the Latin "mancus", meaning "incomplete" or "defective". |
| Croatian | The Croatian word "ni" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "ne", which also means "no" or "not". |
| Czech | The Czech word "ani" shares the same Proto-Slavic root as the Sanskrit word "anyah", meaning "other". |
| Danish | In Danish, "ingen af dem" has an alternate meaning of "none of them" in addition to "neither", while in English, "neither" is only used to mean "not either". |
| Dutch | The Dutch phrase "geen van beide" can refer to both the negation of "both" and the non-existence of a given choice, depending on the context. |
| Esperanto | "Nek" is a contraction of "ne ek", an archaic form that meant "not even". |
| Estonian | "Kumbki" can also mean "each one" and "it doesn't matter". |
| Finnish | In addition to its literal meaning "neither", "ei kumpikaan" can informally mean "either" (similar to the French phrase "ni l'un ni l'autre") when used in a double negative structure. |
| French | "Ni" derives from the Latin negative form "nec" and shares a common root with the English word "nor". |
| Frisian | The Frisian "gjin fan beide" could also mean "nothing of it at all". |
| Galician | The Galician word "nin" is derived from the Latin "nec" (not) and the suffix "-in" (belonging to) and also means "no one". |
| Georgian | The word “არც” can also mean “not” or “even”. |
| German | The word "weder" in German is derived from the Old High German "wedar" meaning "against" or "in opposition". |
| Greek | In modern Greek, "κανενα απο τα δυο" literally translates to "not any of the two," but can also mean "none" or "neither one of them." |
| Gujarati | The Gujarati word "ન તો" is a cognate of the Sanskrit "na ca," which means "and not." |
| Haitian Creole | The word "ni" in Haitian Creole is derived from the French word "ni", meaning "neither", and can also be used as a negative marker, similar to the English word "not". |
| Hausa | "Ba" also serves as a nominal prefix that can be used on verbs to form verbal nouns. |
| Hawaiian | ʻaʻole hoʻi' can also mean "not yet" or "still not," indicating that a state or action has not yet occurred. |
| Hebrew | The Hebrew phrase "לא זה ולא זה" can also mean "not this or that" or "nothing of the sort." |
| Hindi | The Sanskrit origin of the word "न" is "ना," which also means "not"} |
| Hmong | In Hmong the word "thiab" is cognate with the Laotian word "thaay" and the Thai word "thai". |
| Hungarian | "Se" is also the first syllable of the third person object pronoun series "ő", in which case it is usually elongated. |
| Icelandic | The word "hvorugt" can also be used to describe something that is incomplete or unsatisfactory. |
| Igbo | In Igbo, "abughi" also means "it is not" and "there is not" or "it is no more". |
| Indonesian | The word "tidak juga" can also mean "not really" or "not that much" in Indonesian. |
| Irish | The Irish word "ceachtar" also means "each of two" and was originally composed of the word "cech" (each) and the numeral "a dó" (two). |
| Italian | The Italian word "nessuno dei due" ultimately derives from the Latin phrase "nec unus, nec duo," meaning "not one, not two." |
| Japanese | While the word literally means "middle/in-between" (どち+ら+でもない), it can also mean "neither," "neither this nor that," or even "neither good nor bad." |
| Javanese | "Sanadyan" also refers to "even though", "although", and "but". |
| Kannada | The word "ಇಲ್ಲ" also means "not here" or "no" when used in context. |
| Kazakh | The Kazakh word "екеуі де" can also refer to both parties involved in an agreement or situation. |
| Khmer | The word "ទាំង" is also used to mean "both" or "all" in Khmer, and derives from the Pali word "ubhaya, |
| Korean | The word '둘 다' is also an abbreviation of the word '모두다' (all), and can be used to emphasize a choice between two options. |
| Kurdish | Qet in Kurdish can also mean 'a person of mixed origin' or 'a thing of mixed nature'. |
| Kyrgyz | The word 'дагы' has a Persian origin meaning 'also', which is still used as an alternate meaning in Uzbek, while in Kyrgyz its meaning has shifted to mean 'neither'. |
| Lao | "ທັງ" |
| Latin | The Latin word "neque" can also mean "not even" or "nor". |
| Latvian | The word "ne viens, ne otrs" also means "this or that" in contemporary Latvian. |
| Lithuanian | The Lithuanian word "nei vienas, nei kitas" directly translates to "not one, not the other," emphasizing the absence of both options. |
| Luxembourgish | The original word "wedder" derives from Old High German "wedar" (meaning "whether") and in Old Luxembourgish "wede". |
| Macedonian | The term "ниту едно" is also used as a noun in Macedonian, meaning "nothing." |
| Malagasy | "Tsy" derives from the Proto-Austronesian word *sadi (not)", which also gave rise to the Chamorro word "håyi" (no)". |
| Malay | "Tidak juga" in Malay is not a compound of "tidak"+ "juga" but is derived from the negated form of "juga", which means "either". |
| Malayalam | The word "ഇല്ല" can also mean "not", "there is not", or "does not exist" in Malayalam. |
| Maltese | The word "ebda" in Maltese can also mean "never" or "not at all". |
| Maori | The phrase 'kaua hoki' can also express 'in addition', 'as well as', or 'moreover' but requires the conjunction 'me' after it. |
| Marathi | "नाही" is derived from the Sanskrit word "na asti", meaning "not there". |
| Mongolian | The word "бас биш" may originate from the Sanskrit word "न" (na), meaning "not". |
| Nepali | In Sanskrit, 'न त' is also a negative form of the emphatic particle 'त'. |
| Norwegian | The word "ingen" in Norwegian is a contraction of the words "ikke" and "en", meaning "not one." |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word "ngakhale" can also mean "without" or "despite". |
| Pashto | The term نه can also carry meanings such as 'no one,' 'none,' and 'nothing,' or be used in phrases that connote 'in any case,' 'under any circumstances,' or 'not for a moment'. |
| Persian | Etymology: From Middle Persian "na na" (not this, not that). |
| Polish | In Old Polish, "ani" meant "not" and was still used in that sense in the 19th century. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "nem" in Portuguese derives from the Latin "nec" meaning "not". |
| Punjabi | "Nahin", a word used in Punjabi to mean "neither", also means "not" in the Hindi language and is also used in negative sentences. |
| Romanian | The word "nici" also means "nor" or "not even" in Romanian. |
| Russian | The Russian word "ни то, ни другое" literally translates to "not this, nor that". |
| Samoan | The Samoan term "e leai foi" can also be used to mean "not even" or "never". |
| Scots Gaelic | "Ni mò" does not mean "never" in Scots Gaelic! |
| Serbian | The word "ни" in Serbian is a homonym, with different meanings depending on the context, such as "no", "nor", or as a conjunction meaning "neither... nor...". |
| Sesotho | The word "leha" can also be used to mean "not yet" or "never" in Sesotho. |
| Shona | The Shona word "kana" is also used to express indifference or lack of preference. |
| Sindhi | The Sindhi word "نه" is also used as a negative particle, meaning "no" or "not". |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The Sinhala word "නැත" also means "not there" or "lacking". |
| Slovak | Ani jeden is used in a few set phrases in Slovak, where it does not mean 'neither', but instead means 'not a single one' or 'not even one'. |
| Slovenian | The word “niti” can also mean “thread” or “yarn” in Slovenian and is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *nitь, meaning "thread" |
| Somali | The word "midkoodna" in Somali originally meant "in the middle" but gained its current meaning over time. |
| Spanish | The Spanish word "ninguno" comes from the Latin "nec unus" meaning "not one". |
| Sundanese | The Sundanese word "henteu ogé" can also mean "not yet" or "not even". |
| Swahili | The Swahili word "wala" can also mean "but" or "and" in some contexts. |
| Swedish | The word "varken" can mean "either" in Old Norse, from which the modern meaning in Swedish is derived. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The word "hindi rin" is a conjunction that can also mean "not either" or "not even" in English. |
| Tajik | The word “на” is cognate with Persian “nao/نه” with the same meaning and is also used in compounds such as “наҳор/nahor”. (neither day nor night, i.e. twilight) and “натоқат/notoqat” (neither patient nor impatient). |
| Tamil | The Tamil word "இல்லை" can also mean "none", "not present", or "does not exist". |
| Telugu | కాదు can also mean "also" or "as well". |
| Thai | In Thai, "ไม่" can also be an adjective meaning "un-", as in "imperfect" (ไม่สมบูรณ์) or "illegal" (ไม่ถูกต้องตามกฎหมาย). |
| Turkish | "Hiçbiri" is a contraction of "hiç" (nothing) and "biri" (one), meaning "none" or "not one" in Turkish. |
| Ukrainian | The word "ні" in Ukrainian can also be used as an interjection to express negation, similar to "no" in English. |
| Urdu | The word "نہ ہی" is composed of two negative particles that emphasize the negation. |
| Uzbek | "Na" can also mean "not" or "no" in the context of adjectives, as well as "than" in some comparative constructions. |
| Vietnamese | In Vietnamese, "cũng không" can also mean "don't mention it" or "you're welcome". |
| Welsh | The alternate meaning of "ychwaith" is a negative answer to "both" and "neither" and it comes from "ni chwaith". |
| Xhosa | The Xhosa word "hayi" is also sometimes used to express agreement or understanding. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word אויך ניט (oykh nit) can also mean "nor", "not even", or "not at all", depending on the context. |
| Yoruba | Bẹni, meaning 'neither', is also the word for an animal's horn and the point of a knife in Yoruba. |
| Zulu | The Zulu word 'hhayi' can also mean 'nor' or 'not' |
| English | "Neither" derives from Middle English "nawther" and Old English "nāwðer", "nēawðer", both of which mean "not one nor the other." |