Remember the question Θέλετε τίποτα άλλο; (Do you want anything else?)
The word τίποτα is often translated as ‘anything‘, because it appears in contexts the word ‘anything’ would appear in Standard English. For example, δεν ξέρω τίποτα (I don’t know anything).
However, τίποτα can also be translated as ‘nothing‘, because it is also used in contexts the word ‘nothing’ would be used in Standard English:
A: Τίποτα άλλο; (Anything else?)
B: Τίποτα. (Nothing).
So, why does τίποτα have two translations into Standard English?
Double Negatives
The clue here is ‘Standard‘ English.
There are many different varieties of English, and while what is considered ‘Standard’ English varies from place to place (for example, US and UK versions of Standard English exhibit not only different accents but spellings and even vocabulary), double negatives are generally not considered a feature of most standard varieties of the modern English language.
In fact, you may have even been told off by a parent or teacher for saying something like ‘I don’t know nothing!’ even though this is a perfectly correct construction in many well-known and widely used varieties of English. African American Vernacular English, Southern American English, and many British regional dialects use double negatives.
Double negatives are nothing new in English. In fact, they were a standard feature of Old English, and frequently used in Middle English. The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer made frequent use of not only double, but even triple negatives in the Canterbury Tales:
“Ther nas no man no wher so vertuous”
(“There never was no man nowhere so virtuous”).
If Chaucer’s not your thing, the chorus from TLC’s 1999 song ‘No Scrubs’ contains some examples:
No, I don’t want your number
No, I don’t wanna give you mine and
No, I don’t wanna meet you nowhere
No, I don’t want none of your time and
No, I don’t want no scrub
A scrub is a guy that can’t get no love from me
In some languages, including modern varieties of English, double negation may be used for emphasis.
‘I don’t want to meet you anywhere’ or ‘I don’t want any of your time’ is one thing, but ‘I don’t want to meet you nowhere’ and ‘I don’t want none of your time’ is emphatic.
Notice, however, that the double negative is optional in this chorus. The first two lines above (I don’t want your number/I don’t wanna give you mine) are single negatives. They could have been expressed ‘I don’t want no number of yours’ or ‘I don’t want to give you no number of mine’
In many languages, though, double negation is simply the standard, non-optional way of expressing negativity. Bulgarian, French, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Lithuanian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and of course, Greek, are just some examples.
Anything? Nothing?
So how can you tell whether τίποτα means ‘anything’ or ‘nothing’?
One rule of thumb is to translate τίποτα as ‘nothing’ by default, and then see if the resulting sentence sounds as if it would fit in the chorus of No Scrubs.
For example, imagine Maria asked Yiorgos Τι διαβάζεις; (What are you reading?)
He could simply answer Τίποτα. (Nothing.)
But if he wanted to answer with a full sentence, he might say:
Δεν διαβάζω τίποτα. (lit. I’m not reading nothing)
It’s easy to imagine Yiorgos emphatically denying that he is reading anything (I’m not reading nothing!) in much the same way the ladies of TLC deny that they want any sort of scrub (I don’t want no scrub)!
Now, listen to the dialogue on page 57 in the Ελληνικά Τώρα 1+1 textbook, Δεν ξέρω τίποτα. See if you can catch when this phrase is used. Then, complete the exercises underneath.
If you have a conversation partner, ask one another the questions listed at the bottom of the page, or try answering them yourself out loud.
BONUS: Negation in Greek
This Greek Pod 101 video gives a good overview of how double negation works in Modern Greek. Don’t worry about understanding all of it for now.
The most important point is to understand that τίποτα is one of a number of pronouns in Greek which frequently appears in double-negative sentences:
If you’re really interested in how negation works generally (and don’t mind getting a bit philosophical!) watch this Easy Greek video. Again, you certainly don’t need to understand everything (or even close to everything!) discussed at this stage.
Simply understanding that negation functions differently in English and Greek, and that some words like τίποτα do not have a single English translation will help you in the future:
greek_ciwm2e