inget

Ing et is a Swedish word used as a determiner and pronoun to express negation of quantity or existence, most commonly translated as "nothing" or "no" in English. It functions both before nouns (as a determiner) and as a stand-alone pronoun or in predicative phrases (as a subject or complement).

Grammatical use and forms

In Swedish, inget is the neuter form of the negation word ingen. It is used with neuter nouns and in contexts where the negation applies to adjectives, verbs, or whole clauses. For singular common-gender nouns, the corresponding form is ingen; for plural nouns, the form is inga. Examples: Jag har inget hus (I have no house / I have nothing of a house). Det finns inget att säga (There is nothing to say). Det var inget speciellt (That was nothing special). In verwid phrases, inget can precede adjectives as in inget roligt (not fun, not any fun). In contrast, nga and inga are used with plural or non-neuter nouns.

Relationship to other negation words

In addition to inget, Swedish uses ingenting as a noun meaning "nothing" and which can function as the subject or object of a sentence. Ingen and inga are used more like determiners meaning "no one" or "none" in the sense of absence in people or items. The choice between inget, ingen, and inga depends on the gender and number of the noun and on whether the negation targets a specific category or an entire clause.

Etymology and related terms

Inget derives from the same historical root as ingen, tracing back to Old Norse enginn, meaning “not one” or “none.” Related terms include ingen (singular non-neuter), inga (plural), and ingenting (the noun “nothing”). See also: ingen, inga, ingenting.