> Van: Roger Mills
> Onderwerp: Re: A question and introduction
>
>
> John Cowan wrote:
> >I think you're overinterpreting the nullary number (which in
> Lojban is done with the number zero). Just take it as "I see zero
houses", "I see zero
> >elephants". In German one doesn't say "I don't see an apple", one says
> >"I see no apples".
>
> Yes; Dutch too. JOOC is it possible to say, and is there a difference
> (ignoring cases and correct article usage): Ich sehe nicht ein Apfel (or
> maybe Ich sehe ein Apfel nicht......??)
Doesn't sound very German to me... You would say: "Ich sehe keinen Apfel"
(general) or "Ich sehe den Apfel nicht." (about a specific apple). You
cannot combine "nicht" with an indeterminate article. This is similar to
Dutch, where you could say: "Ik zie geen appel(s)" [I see no apple(s)] or
"Ik zie de appel(s) niet" [I don't see the apple(s)"]. "geen" [Dutch] or
"kein" (German) is actually a negated indeterminate article.
geen = niet + een [Dutch]
kein = nicht + ein [German]
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