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どこにも〜ない details

nowhere + go + not

doko ni mo ikanai

nowhere; not anywhere — どこ plus its particle plus も under a negative predicate

meaning: not go anywhere

連休れんきゅうはどこにもかないで、いえでごろごろしてた。

renkyuu wa doko ni mo ikanaide, ie de gorogoro shiteta.

I didn't go anywhere over the long weekend — I just lazed around at home. casual

ちかくの書店しょてんをまわりましたが、どこにもっていませんでした。

chikaku no shoten o mawarimashita ga, doko ni mo utte imasen deshita.

I went round the bookshops nearby, but nowhere had it. neutral

  • alternant

Examples

nowhere; not anywhere — どこにも under a negative predicate rules out every place at once

連休れんきゅうはどこにもかないで、いえでごろごろしてた。

renkyuu wa doko ni mo ikanaide, ie de gorogoro shiteta.

I didn't go anywhere over the long weekend — I just lazed around at home. casual

ちかくの書店しょてんをまわりましたが、どこにもっていませんでした。

chikaku no shoten o mawarimashita ga, doko ni mo utte imasen deshita.

I went round the bookshops nearby, but nowhere had it. neutral

いているみせがどこにもなくて、結局けっきょくコンビニでませた。

aite iru mise ga doko ni mo nakute, kekkyoku konbini de sumaseta.

There wasn't a single shop open anywhere, so in the end I made do with a convenience store. neutral

会場かいじょう周辺しゅうへんには、駐車ちゅうしゃできる場所ばしょがどこにもございません。

kaijou no shuuhen ni wa, chuusha dekiru basho ga doko ni mo gozaimasen.

There is nowhere to park in the vicinity of the venue. formal

Formation

Variant notes

Notes

に stays before も with verbs of motion and location. Bare どこも is the
が-or-を shape: どこもいていなかった, どこもさわっていない.

Related patterns

Similar

  • 何も denies the things a verb acts on, どこにも the places it happens in, and the two stack in one clause (どこにもなにいていない); where 何も needs the verb to have a thing to empty, どこにも needs it to have a location.

  • Same frame, different question word — 誰も empties a set of people and どこにも a set of places; both drop が and を before も (だれない, どこもいていない), but どこ is usually locative, and there に survives も — which is why the headword is どこにも and not bare どこも.

Lookalikes

  • Two kana in, they diverge, and どころか holds no question word at all — its ど is the rendaku'd と of ところ — so it is free in polarity, heightening a contrast onto a positive or a negative alike (やすいどころかたかい, 漢字かんじどころかひらがなもめない), where どこにも〜ない cannot appear without its negative.