Negation and Quantifiers

Nobody or not everyone? A sentence can deny something for the whole group or only for part of it.

• The whole group: use никој, ништо or никогаш together with не (see double negation). Никој не му верува. (Nobody believes him.) Никој од нив не дојде. (None of them came.)
• Part of the group: keep сите, секој or сѐ after the negated verb. Не дојдоа сите. (Not everyone came.) Не може секој да биде лекар. (Not everyone can be a doctor.) Парите не се сѐ. (Money isn't everything.)
• Some people: Некој не му верува. (Someone doesn't believe him.)

When сите comes first. Сите не дојдоа can mean that none of them came or that not all of them came. Stress and context decide. A word like сите or секој together with не does not always deny for the whole group: Секој не може така usually means "Not everyone can do that". In writing, where nobody hears your stress, choose the clear forms Никој не дојде or Не дојдоа сите.

Не belongs to the verb. Не normally goes right before the verb. You cannot say Не јас почнав; to stress who did not do something, use a clause: Не сум јас тој што почна. (It wasn't me who started it.) See negating a verb. Не stands before another word mainly in contrasts with а or туку: Посетивме село, а не град. (We visited a village, not a town.) See не ... туку.