nie

See also: Appendix:Variations of "nie"

Aba

Noun

nie

1. water

References

• D. T. Tryon, Towards a Classification of Solomon Islands Languages

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch niet, nie, from Middle Dutch niwet, niet, from Old Dutch *niowiht, niewiht.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ni/ (generally)
• IPA^(key): /‿i/ (commonly after a verb that ends in a consonant)

• Audio

  (file)

Adverb

nie

1. not

   Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie.

   He can't speak Afrikaans.

Usage notes

• This word has to be repeated at the end of a sentence, unless it is already the last word according to its natural position. (See the Wikipedia article about double negatives in Germanic languages.) Double negation is optional when the last word is another negator, such as nooit (“never”).

Related terms

• niemand
• niks

Alemannic German

Pronunciation

• (Zurich) IPA^(key): /niə/

Adverb

nie

1. never

Dutch

Etymology 1

From niet, with dialectal end-t deletion and shortening of the ie-vowel.

Alternative forms

• (standard) niet
• (dialectal) ni

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɪ/

Adverb

nie

1. (dialectal) Alternative form of niet

Usage notes

• While the spelling nie and the invariable use of the corresponding pronunciation are dialectal, the standard word niet is not rarely given the same pronunciation, particularly in fast speech.

Etymology 2

Equivalent to n- (“n-”) +‎ ie (“ever”). From Middle Dutch nie, from Old Dutch nie. Cognate to German nie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ni/

Adverb

nie

1. (obsolete) never

   Synonyms: nooit, nimmer, nooit ofte nimmer

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ni/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

nie

1. inflection of nier:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

German

Etymology

From Old High German nio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /niː/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iː

Adverb

nie

1. never, never at all (referring to an indefinite period of time)

   Das ist nie passiert! ― That has never happened!

   Wir werden die Wahrheit wohl nie erfahren. ― We'll probably never know the truth.

2. never, not once (referring to a defined period of time; see usage notes below)

   Synonyms: nicht, gar nicht, überhaupt nicht

   Er hat sich in zwei Wochen nie die Haare gewaschen.

   He never washed his hair for two weeks.

Usage notes

• (not once): In English it is quite common to use the word “never” referring to a defined period of time: “I was waiting all night, but he never called.” German generally prefers, and often requires, to use nicht (“not”) in such contexts, possibly emphasized by another adverb such as gar or überhaupt: Ich habe den ganzen Abend gewartet, aber er hat (gar) nicht angerufen. Using nie is only possible if such a period of time is (unusually) long, as in the example sentence above.

Synonyms

• (never at all): niemals, nimmer (archaic)

Derived terms

• nie und nimmer

See also

probability	100 %	90 %	50 %	10 %	0 %
Adverb	immer	meistens	manchmal	selten	nie

Further reading

• “nie” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “nie” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “nie” in Duden online

Anagrams

• ein

Hunsrik

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /niː/

Adverb

nie

1. never

   Ich hon das nie gesihn.

   I've never seen that.

   Du sollst das nie mache.

   You should never do that.

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

Iu Mien

Etymology

From Chinese 泥 (MC nei).

Noun

nie 

1. soil, dirt

Japanese

Romanization

nie

1. Rōmaji transcription of にえ

Mandarin

Romanization

nie

1. Nonstandard spelling of niē.
2. Nonstandard spelling of nié.
3. Nonstandard spelling of niě.
4. Nonstandard spelling of niè.

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Northern Sami

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈnie̯/

Adverb

nie

1. that, so (to that degree)
2. like that, in the same way

Further reading

• Koponen, Eino; Ruppel, Klaas; Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008) Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages‎^[1], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From ni (“nine”).

Noun

nie f (definite singular nia, uncountable)

1. a niner

   Synonym: niar

References

• “nie” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Ine, ein, -ine, nei

Old Polish

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *ne, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *ne, from Proto-Indo-European *ne.

Particle

nie

1. negation particle; not, not

Verb

nie impf

1. there is no

Descendants

• Polish: nie

References

• B. Sieradzka-Baziur, editor (2011–2015), “nie”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

Plautdietsch

Etymology

From Middle Low German nîe, nü̂we, from Old Saxon niuwi. Related to West Frisian nij, Dutch nieuw, German neu, English new, Swedish ny.

Adjective

nie

1. new

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɲɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ
• Syllabification: nie

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Polish nie, from Proto-Slavic *ne.

Particle

nie

1. Negation particle for nouns; no

   Antonym: tak

2. Negation particle for verbs and participles; not; don't, didn't etc.

   Antonym: tak

Verb

nie impf

1. (Middle Polish) there is no

Related terms

• nie-

 

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronoun

nie

1. accusative singular of ono
2. accusative plural of one

Usage notes

Used only with prepositions. See Appendix:Polish pronouns.

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), nie is one of the top 10,355 most used words in Polish, appearing 395 times in scientific texts, 446 times in news, 1225 times in essays, 2061 times in fiction, and 3714 times in plays, totaling 8341 times, making it the 5th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.

Further reading

• nie in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• nie in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• “nie”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish], 2010-2022
• “nie”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish], 2010-2022
• “NIE”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 15.02.2015
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807-1814), “nie”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861), “nie”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1904), “nie”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 3, Warsaw, page 252

Sardinian

Alternative forms

• nibe, nive (Nuorese)
• ni, nii, nia (Campidanese)

Etymology

From Latin nivem, accusative of nix, from Proto-Italic *sniks, from Proto-Indo-European *snígʷʰs. Compare Italian neve, Portuguese neve, Spanish nieve.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnie/

Noun

nie m (plural nies)

1. (Logudorese, weather) snow

Serbo-Croatian

Verb

nie

1. Obsolete spelling of nije