What is "nothing"?
By luneliza
@luneliza (197)
January 3, 2008 11:04am CST
We use this word everyday, several times a day. Yet we never ask ourselves: what is nothing? Is nothing something? Is nothing anything? If it is something, then it can't be nothing, because it denies its own meaning. If it's not anything, then it doesn't exist. How can we talk about something that doesn't exist?
1 response
@mrsjumppuppy03 (3301)
• United States
3 Jan 08
nothing - singular or a plural?
Nothing is a singular indefinite pronoun, and so should be treated as a singular even if followed by a phrase introduced by words like but and except for and a plural noun: Nothing but truthful answers is [not are] acceptable on this questionnaire.Nothing except for your boxes and bags has [not have] been removed from the apartment. Moving the subject closer to its verb, however, reduces the chance of grammatical error and more closely follows the natural flow of speech:
